Director of Maintenance - Four Points Aero Services - Jacob Johnson
Four Points Aero Services is an aircraft MRO and integrated services business located at Dallas Love Field. It is a Part 145 repair station that provides maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services and other support services for a variety of corporate and general aviation aircraft. The company specializes in airframe maintenance and repair, engine repair and maintenance and avionics repair and maintenance. Tom Montgomery, partner and president of Four Points Aero Services and his management team have created a unique culture at the company. “We are a service provider in the MRO business, and every one of us is a customer service representative,” Montgomery says. “Having grown up in the industry, I realize that it takes everybody working together to be successful. Everything we do is done with a team approach. Jacob Johnson leads our maintenance team and helps foster the positive customer service mentality within our maintenance organization.”
Learning about Aircraft Maintenance
Jacob Johnson enjoyed working on cars when he was in high school, but he knew he didn’t want to work on cars for a living. A friend or family member didn’t introduce him to aviation. Instead, his introduction to aircraft maintenance came arrived in the mailbox one day. “I got a letter from Spartan in Tulsa, Oklahoma one day promoting it aircraft maintenance program. After seeing that letter, I decided I wanted to work on airplanes,” Johnson says.
A&P School
In August 2001, Johnson moved to Tulsa to attend Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology’s A&P program. He graduated in November of 2004 with an Associates degree.
We asked Johnson if A&P School was what he expected it would be. “It was,” he says. “Compared to working on cars, there were a lot of the same basics. To be honest, cars were getting to where you needed to be a computer programmer to work on them – you couldn’t just jump in there and get dirty and fix them. I’m glad I got into aircraft maintenance.”
The First Job
After graduating from Spartan, Johnson visited different aircraft maintenance facilities around the Dallas area handing out resumes trying to land a job. In April of 2005, Johnson went to work part time as a contractor for TXI aviation at Dallas Love Field. TXI was a Part 145 repair station that worked on business jets. “I still remember talking to the DOM at TXI,” Johnson says. “He told me, ‘Well, you don’t have experience, so we can’t hire you full-time. But I know you can’t get experience until someone hires you.’ So he let me work as a contractor part-time to get some experience.”
Johnson was able to get experience working on various business jets including Cessna Citation 500s and 550s and Falcon 10s and 50s. Nine months later, he was hired full-time by TXI.
Vitesse Aviation Services
After a few years working at TXI, the company was sold to Vitesse Aviation Services. Johnson stayed on with the new company as a mechanic on the floor. At that point, the company expanded its maintenance capabilities to include Hawkers, Beechjets and Citation 650s. It also expanded into Falcon 20s and 200s.
After a while, Johnson was promoted to a weekend shift lead. “There were three of us,” he tells D.O.M.magazine. “I was accepting work and making the work orders. I was running the crew while also being out on the floor working along side them. We did a lot of troubleshooting and quick-turn work. It was less inspection work and more AOG-type work.”
We asked Johnson if there were any challenges transitioning from a mechanic to a shift lead. “Honestly, the transition went pretty smooth,” he says. “When I started working as a lead, everyone who worked there was extremely helpful. They didn’t leave me out to dry. If I needed anything, all I had to do was ask. I was working with people who had a lot of experience, and they shared their knowledge with me.”
Johnson later was promoted to floor inspector, inspecting and reviewing all the paperwork before releasing the aircraft.
Over time, there was a slow down of work at Vitesse, and the company did away with the weekend shift. Everyone went back to working Monday through Friday. During that slow down, Johnson was moved into the inspection department in the machine shop. He was inspecting 737 flap carriage overhauls as part of the QA department.
Business Jet Access
In October 2010, Vitesse was sold to Business Jet Access. Johnson went back to working as a floor technician. Business Jet Access was a charter operator with a new repair station certificate. The company was trying to grow its outside customer maintenance. “We managed and chartered 12 customer aircraft,” Johnson says. “And we were starting to bring in outside customers. We had Citation 650s, Hawker 850s, Challenger 300s, a King Air 350, a BAC 1-11 and a Global Express that we were maintaining, and I was fortunate to get experience on all of them.”
After about a year and a half, Johnson was promoted to lead technician. Then a year later, in March 2013, Johnson was laid off. He then went to work at West Star Aviation as a lead technician at Dallas Love Field. As a lead technician at West Star, Johnson had an assigned crew. As aircraft came in, he would manage the crew’s work assignments and update customers as the process went along.
In July 2013, the company was sold to Four Points Aero Services.
DOM
When West Star was sold to Four Points Aero Services, the DOM didn’t transition with new company. The job position was posted and employees were encouraged to put in for the job. Johnson submitted his resume and was selected as the new DOM for Four Points Aero Services. John Hayes, who had been the DOM at Business Jet Access, was then the general manager at Four Point Aero Services, and hired Johnson as the new DOM at the company. “John was a huge mentor,” Johnson says. “When he moved me into this position, it originally started as production control supervisor. It was a step to get me into the DOM role. I was able to get my head wrapped around the job while making the transition.”
Johnson says he wasn’t left to himself when he became the DOM at Four Points. “I had a lot of people to lean on,” he tells D.O.M. magazine. “I had worked with most of the employees out on the hangar floor in the past. That made for an easier transition than coming into a new company and telling the mechanics ‘I’m the new guy in charge.’ Our owner Tom Montgomery has also been a huge help. We have a solid management team. No matter what department it is or what is going on, we all work together as a team.”
We asked Johnson what the biggest challenge was when he transitioned to being a DOM. “I would say the numbers side of the job,” he says. “Up until that point, I didn’t deal with the numbers. I could estimate how long it would take to do a job, but I had never dealt with the dollar figures before.”
When asked what the most rewarding part of the job is, he says, “Seeing the airplane go out the door and the customer getting in it as happy as he could be. To me that’s a feeling of satisfaction.”
The customers at Four Points Aero Services aren’t limited to the Dallas area. The company has several customers from Mexico. “Some of them operate under FAA regulations,” Johnson says. “Some of them are operating under Mexico’s DGAC (Directorate General of Civil Aeronautics). We are DGAC certified. Our manager of quality assurance headed that initiative. From a maintenance standpoint, the process is pretty seamless. We still do the work in accordance with the manufacturers’ maintenance manuals and have the same sign offs under the repair station.
“We are working on growing our Mexican customer base,” Johnson continues. “We are an Embraer Phenom Authorized Service Center. There are several Phenoms flying in Mexico, and we are working on getting some of that business. Embraer has been working with us to improve our capabilities so that we can also go down there when an aircraft can’t fly to us. It’s a work in progress.”
Johnson has 20 technicians working three shifts at the company. He is proud of the team. “I have good guys around me who really help out,” he says. “I don’t get bothered by the little stuff. My leads are able to make decisions. They communicate with the customers. We have meetings with the leads and get daily updates from them, but they interact directly with the customers and are empowered to make decisions as they see fit. At the end of the day, my cell phone isn’t going to ring unless it is an emergency.”
“I have an assistant manager of maintenance, Tim Hull, who is basically our hangar supervisor,” Johnson continues. “When I am out, he steps in and does everything I do. When he is out, I take over his roles. We work well together and actually share an office. It’s great knowing we can take a vacation without worrying about checking our phones or email all the time.
Building a Great Team
Tom Montgomery tells D.O.M. magazine that customer service is a top priority at Four Point Aero Services. He says that excellence in customer service is accomplished through the company’s team approach. The employees at the company have a can-do positive attitude. We asked Johnson what he looks for in new employees wanting to join this unique team. “I definitely look at attitude and personality a lot,” he says. “The technical side of the job can be taught. We all share our knowledge – it makes our jobs easier. I look at personalities. We hire all types of personalities. I make it clear to everyone that we have no room for drama here. Our jobs are too important for drama. All of our guys have nice calm attitudes. Everything is obviously urgent, but we don’t have any bad attitudes. That’s one of the top things we look for.”
And how about keeping the talent he has at the company? “I don’t know,” he laughs. “I want to say that they like me. But honestly, we operate in a close-knit family-type environment. Our guys know that if their kid is sick, they don’t have to worry – go do what you need to do! We all have a job to do, but we also have lives outside of work, and that is important to us and our employees!”
We asked Johnson what advice he would give to someone who wants to become a director of maintenance. “That’s a tough one,” he says. “I would say the biggest thing is to listen to those around you. Everyone has a lot of knowledge to share no matter how long they have been doing the job. That is something that has helped me the most from day one – listening and learning from other people. Don’t develop an ‘I know it all’ attitude. I am still learning from my guys all the time.”