Last year, Duncan Aviation’s Aircraft Sales and Acquisitions team found a Falcon 2000LX for a longtime maintenance customers. The aircraft was owned by a party in Thailand, and the acquisition required a great deal of research, consultation with Duncan Aviation’s maintenance experts, and weeks of negotiations.
Ultimately, the Duncan Aviation team reached an agreement that was favorable to both the buyers and seller. Chief Pilot Adam Shelton was confident in Duncan Aviation’s Aircraft Sales Representative Doug Roth’s abilities.
“Quite honestly, Doug is a professional,” says Adam. “What was unique about Doug, and it probably comes from experience, was his ability to work through the greatest difficulties on this deal. There are always road blocks in the way when it comes to buying and selling aircraft, and Doug always found a way around them to make it work.”
The new owners were able to buy the aircraft at a price that was less than anticipated, and they decided to make the Falcon 2000LX entirely their own by reconfiguring the cabin, installing a new interior, upgrading the cockpit avionics, installing a new CMS (Cabin Management System), and applying a custom paint scheme to the exterior.
When Adam saw the newly completed aircraft, he wasn’t entirely surprised. He’d been involved from the beginning—from the acquisition to the delivery in late-January 2020. Still, he was impressed.
“It’s not even the same airplane—it’s not even close. It shouldn’t be, either,” says Adam. “You guys literally touched everything on that airplane that could have been touched. It’s been repainted, has a totally new interior, a completely new CMS, new avionics gear—it’s basically a new airplane.”
Even before the Falcon 2000LX was flown to the Duncan Aviation facility in Lincoln, Nebraska, to get started on the paint and interior, additional team members lent their expertise to help coordinate the shops with the customers’ schedules.
In order to prevent downtime during the customers’ busiest season, the Airframe Team agreed to perform an upcoming 2-C inspection early, while the Falcon 2000LX was in Lincoln for its interior work and paint.
“We needed the support and teamwork of numerous shops and departments to make sure the aircraft could be finished in time for the new owners’ busy schedules,” says Doug. “Nate Klenke (Manager of Completions/Modification Service Sales) figured out how we could manage the paint and reconfiguration, and Tracey Boesch (Senior Sales Rep for Completions and Modifications) and Tim Klenke (Senior Sales Rep for Airframe) helped me by providing detailed workscope proposals.”
The Duncan Aviation Engineering and Certification Services team got involved to ensure that we had all of the data and substantiation for a safe and compliant installation of various aspects of the cabin.
“Senior Lead Completions Designer Mary Lee worked with the new owners on all aspects of the new interior and exterior paint to ensure every detail would meet their expectations,” says Doug. “Project Manager Ryan Oestmann kept the lines of communication open, making everything flow smoothly for the new owners.”
Adam couldn’t agree more.
“Aesthetically, it was good, and I was impressed,” he says. “The owner was impressed, too. It was a long, arduous process that Mary can speak to—the veneer that we put in the aircraft, to get it stained and just the right color, the interior shop really did knock it out of the park. It is beautiful, and the owners love it. Mary put a lot of work into that, and it shows in the final product.”
Mary said she was honored to have been a part of the process.
“The owners were elated to have found this Falcon 2000LX and were excited to be able to completely refurbish both the interior and exterior to exactly what they wanted,” says Mary. “The finishing touches were incorporating their logos as part of the exterior paint scheme, which added just the right personal touch.”
Adam praised the entire Duncan Aviation team, but he also singled out Project Manager Ryan Oestmann for his diplomacy and organizational skills.
“I’m an old farm boy from Southern Iowa, and I’ll be the first to admit, I’m a little rough at times. Ryan probably deserves a medal; he did a great job communicating with me and letting me know what was going on,” says Adam. “The size and scope of this project was quite amazing, and Ryan kept it all going. He’s organized and super diplomatic. I know we were not his only project, but most of the time I was there in Lincoln, I felt like we were.”
Although Adam specifically mentioned Doug, Mary, and Ryan as the shining stars of this project, the three are quick to acknowledge that a project of this magnitude truly requires the dedication and effort of dozens of Duncan Aviation team members.
“It was a very complex project,” says Ryan. “We were able to do this because of the commitment and incredible teamwork here at Duncan Aviation.