AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2016 - 56

PILOT BRIEFING
MILESTONES |

Family-owned
FBO

PAT HESELTINE (left) said he and his wife, Gin,

met at the airport restaurant when Gin was
its manager, "and the rest is history." Avian
Aeronautics mechanic Will Perman puts a
new propeller on a Piper Cub (above).

Thirty years of perfecting a business
BY KEVIN KNIGHT

"COMMUNITY" IS A TERM pilots often apply to general avi-

ation. However, it doesn't mean much unless there's a
gathering place and enthusiastic people to share it. Pat
Heseltine learned that in 1971 as a 14-year-old at his home
airport in Tacoma, Washington. His father owned a local gas
station, got interested in flying, and started taking lessons.
They soon had a 1963 Cessna 172, and lots of father-son time
around an oil-burning stove at the airport office.
"There were always lots of old pilots down there,"
Heseltine said. "They looked like fossils to me and had endless stories, like their DMEs going backwards from the local
headwinds. Those guys lived and breathed flying."
For the past 45 years, so has he. Heseltine is founder,
owner, and head cheerleader of Avian Flight Center at
Washington's Bremerton National Airport. It's across the
Puget Sound from Seattle, and one of the few family-owned
FBOs in the United States. It exemplifies how a committed
fixed-based operator can transform an airport and energize
the local flying community.
Bremerton's 6,000-foot runway was a U.S. Navy landing
field during World War II. After military use declined, things

started looking a bit rough around the edges. Heseltine lived
nearby and visited occasionally, but he was busy as an A&P
and occasional crop duster and fish spotter.
In 1981, he bought a Cessna floatplane in Louisiana and
brought it home. Nearly broke, but full of ambition, he was
soon running a floatplane repair business on American Lake
south of Seattle. He was there four years when opportunity
appeared in February 1985.
An engine shop at the Bremerton airport was for sale
after its owner died. It was housed in a ramshackle, 6,000foot Quonset hut with poor lighting and no insulation.
Fortunately, Heseltine's banker was a pilot who believed in
GA and this hard-working, 28-year-old mechanic.
"We had to figure things out as we went," Heseltine said.
An FBO and some aviation businesses had been on the field
but failed. With the proper facilities, Heseltine knew he could
provide first-class flight training, a flying club, aircraft maintenance, complete engine rebuilds, pilot supplies, parts, and
fuel. The local Port Authority agreed, and constructed a large
hangar and office complex for Avian that opened shortly after
the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
"There was a period there when the Pacific Northwest
was losing an FBO a month. We dug in our heels and did
everything possible to give customers the best service and
experience possible," Heseltine said.
In the past 30 years Avian has trained more than 1,500
pilots, rebuilt more than 1,000 engines, maintained countless
airplanes, and exposed hundreds of Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts,
and school groups to GA. It currently has 23 employees, four
Cessnas, a Beechcraft Sierra, and a Piper Seneca.
"I still love coming to work," said Heseltine, who met his
wife at the airport in 1988. "I'm optimistic and keep looking
for opportunities to improve. There are always new challenges. I like those, and love being around airplanes."
KEVIN KNIGHT is a pilot living in Bremerton, Washington.

WEB

www.aopa.org/flyins/PWT

56 | AOPA PILOT August 2016

DAVID TULIS

AOPA will host a fly-in at Bremerton National Airport (PWT) on August 20, 2016.


http://www.aopa.org/flyins/PWT

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2016

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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202305
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202304
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202211
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aopa/pilot_202209
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