Avionics News November 2012 - 50

With 1,300 square meters of hangar and office space, Airborne Avionics is located in Mudgee, New South Wales, in the southeast corner of Australia, some 270 kilometers from Sydney.

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AIRBORNE AVIONICS

who live, work and travel in rural and remote Australia. In this region, the organization operates an older King Air B200 as a mobile dental clinic for remote towns in western New South Wales as well as two new King Air B200s equipped with the latest Collins Pro Line 21 avionics for essential health services and evacuation. Ensuring the aircraft are capable of carrying out the RFDS’ mission is truly lifesaving work. Going In-house This husband and wife team doesn’t like leaving things to chance, especially when it comes to their business. In late 2009, they built a maintenance hangar and developed an inhouse maintenance division called Oz Choppers, dedicating six technicians to maintenance and inspections, interiors modifications and new paint. To add avionics capabilities, they purchased Airborne Avionics and relocated it closer to home. “Airborne Avionics is a major part of our whole operation,” Rogers said. “The avionics industry is very small and very tight in terms of availability in Australia. Mark wanted us to have our own avionics personnel on call when we needed them. Airborne Avionics was originally based two hours west of Mudgee. It had run very successfully for close to 20 years. We were already one of their customers. We put a proposal to them, and after much negotiation, the sale went through.” Airborne Avionics’ founder and original owner, Arnie Hartley, as well as his former apprentice, Darren Brook, continue to work for the service center. “Arnie has a long history in the industry, having first started his career with Qantas, and Darren Brook just finished a
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complete refit of the radio and electrical systems in a Bell JetRanger and a Bell 212,” Rogers said, referring to the avionics shop’s project to completely refurbish Commercial Helicopters’ four other aircraft – two Bell 212 and two Bell JetRangers. The helicopters are slated for all new wiring, avionics and instrument panels. Way Out in the Bush Mark’s first foray into the aviation business began in 1991, when he purchased his first helicopter – a piston-engine Bell Kawasaki. Based “way out in the bush” at a cotton farm near Collarenebri in northwest New South Wales, Mark flew farm managers on crop inspection flights and provided standby medical evacuation services during cotton picking and ginning seasons. Soon, Mark expanded into the Macquarie Valley near the little town of Warren, tackling the growing industry of aerial cotton spraying in environmentally sensitive areas. Throughout the years, Mark continued adding more helicopters, expanding his services and moving into larger spaces. “In 2002, we needed a new base with more room, so we moved to Mudgee and purchased hanger space and land adjacent to Mudgee Airport,” Mark Rogers said. Although small with 1,700-meter asphalt and grass runways, the airport gives Airborne Avionics easy access to all of its customers, from recreational pilots with ultralights to business owners with their twin-engine turboprops, from flying schools to property owners. “It’s really Mark’s drive and ambition that has carried us this far,” Kate Rogers said. “He started out on his own, and now we have 25 employees, eight operating helicopters with four more in the wings waiting to be refurbished, and three businesses. That’s incredibly awesome.” q

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Avionics News November 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News November 2012