Av8 MRO, a division of the Av8 Group, is an FAA- and EASA-approved repair station, specializing in overhauling landing gear on Hawker and Phenom aircraft. The Av8 Group offers years of experience in PMA parts, accessory and component maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), as well as aircraft on ground (AOG) parts services. The group’s mission is to provide solutions for today’s most prevalent problems in the aircraft parts and component segment. Av8 MRO became a market disruptor when it started offering fixed-price overhauls on Hawker and Phenom landing gear.
“That is not the industry standard,” said Yoel Arnoni, CEO of the Av8 Group, of the fixed-price model. “The industry standard is ‘you send me your landing gear, I’ll tear it down, I’ll find out how many bad parts there are and I’ll charge you based on what I find.’ We decided from the very beginning not to do that.”
Most standard overhaul programs will cover labor for a standard work scope, as well as standard replacement parts and processes as called out in the manual. Av8 MRO takes it one step further. The company also covers additional labor as a result of discrepancies, as well as existing and new repairs that require additional engineering. The Av8 MRO flat rate also covers all additional parts required in the overhaul, regardless of price and reason for rejection. Parts that are rejected due to expired life limitations are also included.
Av8 MRO offers its fixed-price model if the landing gear meets a few specific qualifications. The reason for landing gear overhaul must not be incident-related and the equipment cannot have been previously disassembled. Operators must also have the life limitation documents for the gear.
“We take the risk on a high overhaul cost rather than our customers taking the risk,” Arnoni explained. “Typically, you own one airplane, and every 10 or 12 years you’re going to get one overhaul. We do dozens of overhauls every quarter and we can spread that risk over those overhauls. That will save 90-odd percent of all the customers money had they gone to another shop. That’s how we help them, that’s how we save them money. And, that’s why we’re unique in the business. We’ve taken that same model from the Hawker to the Phenom.”
Av8 MRO takes Hawker and Phenom landing gear from all over the world. Customers remove the landing gear from their plane then send it to Av8’s Houston, Texas location. Hawker landing gear takes about three weeks to overhaul and Phenom takes about four weeks. Av8 MRO primarily works on landing gear, but it also works on Hawker’s TKS deicing system, as well.
Company History
Arnoni has extensive experience in the aviation industry. He started working in aviation in 1979 and launched his own company, Arnoni Aviation, in 1986. Arnoni Aviation was a parts and repair resource for Hawker 125 series aircraft until Arnoni sold the company in 2006. Arnoni would go on to start the Av8 Group in 2012 with his partners Mike Washburn and Russell Eckhart, whom he worked with at Arnoni Aviation.
“Av8 is really a continuation of what we started at Arnoni Aviation and did for almost 20 years there,” he said.
Arnoni mentioned the company started as a parts business, and eventually began buying airplanes to part out. The company soon ran into difficulty getting parts overhauled, so it brought the overhauling process in-house. The company then had issues with pricing and lead-time on landing gear piece parts. It began making its own FAA-certified piece parts to combat those issues, specializing in Hawker aircraft.
“When we started Av8, we started overhauling Hawker landing gear because it was something that we knew and were comfortable with,” Arnoni explained.
Three months after starting the Av8 Group, Hawker announced it would no longer sell piece parts for landing gear. There were eight companies overhauling Hawker landing gear at that time, but they quickly disappeared. The Av8 Group survived because it had already been reverse engineering and certifying some parts for Hawker landing gear.
“We decided rather than drop out, we would double down and make more of the parts instead,” Arnoni said. “At the beginning of 2014, there were only two companies that were left overhauling Hawker gear. Av8 was one and the OEM was the other. We increased our market share to about 80 percent of the market on Hawker landing gear.”
The Av8 Group currently makes more than 400 parts for Hawker landing gear; there are only 12 parts on the landing gear the company doesn’t make. A few years ago, the company expanded to Phenom aircraft, as well.
“The Hawker aircraft, for all intents and purposes, went out of production in 2009, so we knew at some point we needed to find another aircraft to concentrate on,” Arnoni said. “Interestingly enough, the Phenom started production in 2009. We started reverse engineering and manufacturing piece parts for the Phenom gear and we currently have more than 200 certified parts. We chose the Phenom because the manuals were available but, very similar to the Hawker, the parts were not readily available.”
Other Divisions
The Av8 Group has four divisions: Av8 MRO, Av8 PMA, Av8 AOG and Av8 Aviation.
“The MRO is where we started,” Arnoni said. “When we saw the Hawker gear was going to start falling off and before we committed to the Phenom gear, we were wondering how to expand our business. We decided to start Av8 PMA that would offer PMAs to other people.”
“There are two parts to getting a PMA,” he continued. “You have to demonstrate to the FAA that the part you’re trying to make is equal to or better than the original part. Then, you have to be able to demonstrate to the FAA that you are capable of, manufacturing the part and you have to meet the same standards as the full aircraft manufacturers.”
Arnoni said there are a lot of people who have ideas for PMAs, but they don’t have the infrastructure to execute the idea.
“You’ve got to have document control, an engineering department, quality systems for your purchase orders, quality systems for bringing in the parts and recall capabilities,” he mentioned. “You’ve got to have every single one of these systems in place, the same as Collins or Cessna or Textron. Our idea is that we would have this infrastructure, we would certify and manufacture the parts, then provide them to these smaller companies who will license them to sell those products out into the market.”
Arnoni noted the Phenom landing gear is currently taking up the engineering department’s time and energy, so the Av8 Group isn’t working on outside projects right now. He did say the company will take on more of those projects in the future.
Av8 AOG is made up of experienced parts professionals who buy, sell and broker parts for their customers. Finally, the Av8 Aviation section is the latest addition to the Av8 Group. That division buys and sells airplanes.
“There are a lot of people out there who buy and sell airplanes. The main difference with us is that we add value to the airplanes ourselves before we sell them. Primarily, we buy airplanes where the landing gear and major inspections are due. After we do the landing gear overhaul, supervise the major inspections, add new paint and interior, the plane is almost back to new condition, and then we sell the airplane,” Arnoni said.
