PROFILE
Wehrle with Baker Aviation President Ray Goyco.
Photo by Marj Rose.
AN AVIATION CAREER TAKES FLIGHT Wehrle began his aircraft maintenance career at Atlantic Aviation. He was tasked with all kinds of line maintenance, helping out wherever they needed him. He loved every minute of it, especially when it was pay day. “It was exhilarating and I was learning something new
every day,” he says. “Then getting my own place with my own money was a great feeling and being a mechanic gave me that independence right out of school.” As time went on, Wehrle kept looking for new challenges
and eventually moved on to TXI Aviation where he helped maintain a fleet of five charter aircraft. Management depended on him heavily to keep all the aircraft flying. He became a Hawker and Westwind maintenance instructor at SimuFlite in the late 1980s. Still trying to carve out his own niche, Wehrle decided his next career venture needed to be something he could have more control over, and that is when he decided to launch his own maintenance business: Aeromech. In his first supervisory role, Wehrle was also the owner of the company. His employees were contractors. Finding people that were hard working, experienced and dedicated was not always easy. Wehrle often lost money on jobs when the people he hired didn’t stack up, but he continued to demand quality. He wanted people to keep calling Aeromech when they needed their aircraft fixed right the first time. Wehrle knew that service and honesty were areas that could make a difference and help him grow his business with more loyal customers. Mentoring has always been important to Wehrle. Early on at Aeromech, he took the opportunity to find aspiring
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young technicians and train them, coach them and share important tips of the trade with them while growing his business. Many of his protégés are highly sought after today due to the vast experience and exposure they received under his guidance. Wehrle takes pride in the fact that he played a part in their successful careers, as many of them hold senior positions for major MROs and flight departments as directors and chiefs of maintenance. Wehre thrived in the entrepreneurial environment
and liked organizing his crews and scheduling all the work out for weeks in advance. Under his leadership, Aeromech flourished for 22 years. One of Aeromech customers was Baker Aviation, a
family-owned charter/management business based in Fort Worth, TX. Wehrle and his team impressed the owner, Stanley Baker Jr., and his son, Stanley “Stan” Baker III, with their keen troubleshooting ability and quality maintenance. The extent of the Bakers’ satisfaction led to the purchase of Aeromech in 2011 and soon thereafter, Baker Aviation added maintenance services to its business and moved into a hangar at Addison Airport. The Bakers retained much of Wehrle’s team from
Aeromech. They engaged Wehrle as an engineering consultant to begin with. As the maintenance jobs started coming in, Wehrle became the new DOM and started using his relationships and status to attract more customers. Baker expanded from one hangar into a second one only months after opening its doors, then grew into a third hangar in early 2013. Today its facilities total 25,400 square feet in size.
DOMmagazine
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