PROFILE
going to go to training if I wasn’t going to get paid. ‘Well then, consider yourself terminated,’ he told me.”
APS
As the door to Mayer’s “career” at Jiffy Lube was shut, another door opened. After the phone call termination from Jiffy Lube, Mayer opened the newspaper to the classifieds ads. There was an ad for a parts washer and driver at APS. Mayer got the job and spent a lot of time on the road. “The first year I was with the company, I probably drove more than 100,000 miles in a company F-150 with an AM radio and one gas tank,” says Mayer. “If I had two Shorts 360 props in the bed with the feathered prop blade sticking up in the breeze, I’d have to stop about every three hours for fuel. “I was driving all over the country for customers, delivering repaired propellers and picking up propellers for repair,” continues Mayer. “Sometimes I would go on a run and would need to disassemble the propellers. I’d come back in the truck and there would be hubs in the cab and blades in the bed with whole propellers on the stand. Airlines would call and say they needed me to pick up a prop. I’d go pick it up even if it was out of the way. Sometimes what started out as a one- or two-day trip would turn into a four-day journey. We did a lot of work for American Eagle. I went to Tennessee for Flagship Airlines. I used to go to Flint, MI, and Marquette, MI, a lot. We did a lot of work for Comair in Cincinnati. We worked on a lot of Metros and Shorts.” Within a year, thanks to his NDT
experience at CMSU with liquid penetrant and mag particle while he was taking powerplant courses, Mayer was building propellers at APS.
PRODUCTION MANAGER After 17 years honing his propeller inspection and repair skills at APS,
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Mayer landed his first supervisory job when he was promoted to production manager. At first, one challenge he faced was how he was going to be an effective supervisor to those who had been there longer than him. “There was some friction there with a couple of guys,” says Mayer. “It even got to the point where some of them wouldn’t even say hello to me. I eventually sat down with them and said, ‘This is the job they gave me. It’s not my decision. This is the way it is. I’m just doing the job they asked me to do in the best way I can.’ It got much better after that talk. “To this day, I make sure our
employees understand the key to our success,” Mayer tells D.O.M. magazine. “It’s not what I want. It’s not what the owners want. Our customers send their propellers here to get repaired as quickly as possible at a fair price. If we make it too expensive by giving them repairs they don’t need or take to long to perform them, they will go elsewhere. If we don’t meet the needs of our customers, they will go elsewhere. That is just the way it is in a service business.” Mayer has travelled all over the
world with APS. He has trained numerous mechanics, both civilian and military, on proper propeller maintenance practices. He maintains close communication with propeller
manufacturers and seeks their advice whenever a unique discrepancy pops up. Likewise, the manufacturers rely on APS and Mayer to keep them in the loop of what they are seeing with the propellers that are coming in from the field for repair. “We have a good team here at APS,” concludes Mayer. “We really don’t have a lot of turnaround. I sometimes joke that once APS sucks you in, myself included, you’re here for life.” In 2006, Mayer became chief inspector, the job he holds to this day. At some companies, there can sometimes be a conflict between production and quality assurance. We asked Mayer if that is the case at APS. “I have a great working relationship with the guys on the floor,” says Mayer. “I have 30 years experience. They know that if I don’t know something, I will contact somebody to find out. There are many things that we see that aren’t in any manual. The guys on the shop floor know that if they ask me something, I’ll get them an answer.” Mayer now owns a Cherokee and still flies Weicker’s Bonanza. He still recalls Weicker’s words as he flew for that first time in his Cessna 150, and believes those words ring true to more than where he could fly the plane back then. They are good advice in life: “Anywhere you want to go!”
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