January 30, 2007

Fly away home
Jaswend’s owners are happy to be back in The Dalles

By RODGER NICHOLS
of The Chronicle

    If James Shoptaw weren’t fixing planes, he’d be a Marine. “If they called me again, I’d go,” he said, “and Wendy knows that.”
    Wendy nods her agreement. After 26 years of married life, they are comfortable with and understand each other.
    And though their Jaswend Aviation company recently was named as the resident aircraft mechanics at Columbia Gorge Regional Airport, his seabag is still packed and ready to go.
    That call is not likely to come.
    James did get a chance to serve in the Marine Corps from 1984 to 1988, including tours overseas. It was a training accident, rather than any hostile action, that forced a medical discharge, or he’d still be an active duty Marine.
    The Shoptaw’s roots go deep in The Dalles. Wendy is a 1979 Wahtonka graduate. James went through junior high at The Dalles and spent ninth grade at Wahtonka before his mother and stepfather moved to Morenci, Ariz. He graduated there in 1977, and tried a year at Arizona State, where he admits he was more interested in playing soccer than hitting the books. So he moved back to The Dalles and got a job with the Martin Marietta Aluminum plant.
    It was then that he met Wendy — in church. Though they both attended school locally, they’d never been in the same school at the same time.
    They were married in 1980, and settled in locally. But James was laid off from the aluminum plant, so he fell back on a previously prepared position, i.e., he joined the Army. One term was enough for him, and when he came out, it was to work at a shop in Goldendale, where he learned welding. But that business closed, and this time he tried the Marines, and found a true fit.
    “I hated the Army and loved the Corps,” he said.
    After his discharge, he worked at Mid-Columbia Healthcare Equipment for a couple of years and then went to Portland Community College to become an aircraft mechanic.
    “I was hired before I graduated in 1992,” he said proudly, and headed to Baker City. He was certified A&P, meaning qualified to work on both airframes and powerplants (engines).
    That led to a long stint at Ontario, then Ashland, Redmond for five years, and now The Dalles. Along the way, he stopped working for other people and the couple set up Jaswend.
    “We wanted to do our own thing, and we wanted to do it in The Dalles,” James said. “Two of our three kids were born here. This is home.”
    They also really like the airport here. “It’s a diamond in the rough,” said Wendy. “We think it has a big future.”
    The couple say they have been welcomed warmly by officials and pilots.
    “Everybody has been very supportive,” James said.
    Working on aircraft is not for the casual mechanic. To be certified, potential candidates have to document nearly 2,000 hours of training before the Federal Aviation Administration will allow them to even take the test. In addition to a stiff written test, there is an oral exam and practical, hands-on demonstration of skill on a real aircraft.
    And that’s just for one of the branches, either airframe or powerplant. The whole procedure must be repeated for the other branch.
    “There are only three ways to get that training,” James said. “You can be trained by the military, you can go to college like I did, or you can be an apprentice to a certified mechanic for three years.”
    The Shoptaws have a son who’s interested in the latter course. It’s a lot cheaper for the student when the apprentice program can be done in the family.
James also has inspection authorizaion (IA), something that requires three years on the job and another set of tests.
    His work involves maintenance, repairs, and what is called STC, for “supplemental type certificate.” alterations.
    Working on airplanes is vastly different than working on cars, James explains. Each aircraft manufactured is issued a type certificate by the FAA, specifying this airframe with this engine with this propeller, etc. Modifying any of those standards requires the use of parts that have been approved by the FAA for that aircraft for that use.
    “You can hot rod a car, but you can’t do the same to an airplane,” he said.
Or rather, it’s possible, but any unapproved change throws the airplane into the “experimental” category.
    “You don’t want that,” James said about experimental status. “Because you can’t get insurance for experimental craft, and it’s nearly impossible to get it back to type certificate where they will insure it.”
    That’s an important consideration, when a simple airplane like a single engine Cessna 172 runs between $45,000 and $160,000, depending on age and condition.
    Unlike cars, where there are hundreds of aftermarket-manufacturers offering thousands of add-ons and upgrades, from crankshafts to gearshift knobs, the same isn’t true in aviation. That’s in part to the more limited market, but primarily to the five to 10 years it takes from conception to FAA approval for any airplane upgrade.
    “If you think about it, our engines are designs from the 1920s and 1930s. They use magnetos, a technology from the 1860s. They really haven’t changed that much.”
    Developments have primarily come in new jet aircraft, he said, which take advantage of composite materials and current avionics technology — at a significant cost.
    For smaller propeller craft, the next big technology is diesel engines.
“They’re lighter and more fuel efficient,” James said, “If you have a six-hour range with avgas [aviation gas], the same plane with a diesel engine will give you 12 hours of flight operation. At 165 miles per hour, that’s a huge increase in distance.”
    One of the big expenses for aircraft mechanics is keeping up with all the type certifications for all the aircraft ever built. It takes five feet of storage to hold all the microfiches required, and James also subscribes to an online service.
James said he doesn’t begrudge the time spent keeping current. “If I don’t stay on top, it’s a disservice to myself and the profession,” he said.
    “When the FAA designee signed my certificate, he said, “This is not only a license to practice your profession, it’s a license to learn. Don’t ever stop.”
Words to live by.