Consolidating Regulatory
Libraries for Atlantic
Aviation

About Atlantic Aviation

With more than 60 locations from coast to coast, Atlantic Aviation operates the nation’s largest fixed base operator (FBO) network. The company supports its FBOs with six dedicated maintenance facilities in Ft. Wayne (IN), Casper (WY), Deer Valley (AZ), and Sun Valley (ID), as well as two recently added Flightcraft maintenance locations in Eugene and Portland (OR), which were acquired in July 2011.

The work performed by these operations is especially demanding given the quantity and wide range of aircraft that typically come into the hangar for maintenance service – everything from single-engine light aircraft to mid-sized business jets, according to Michael Rasch, Atlantic’s regional maintenance manager.

The need

With so many locations across the country servicing a wide variety of aircraft, Atlantic faced the challenge of managing a large and growing number of maintenance and regulatory libraries at each individual location. In addition, Atlantic needed to make sure that all mechanics at each location had access to the information they required for the specific mix of aircraft they might service on any given day.

All of this required a tremendous amount of resources from administration to IT personnel and mechanics. Each operation was charged with maintaining the scope and currency of its libraries, which also inevitably led to some duplication, according to Rasch, who recognized the range of these challenges after he came on board in May of 2011.

“Ft. Wayne would buy what they needed, and Deer Valley would buy what they needed,” he said. “We tried to centralize the information in one location at our Plano (TX) headquarters with each location sending in its libraries. But, as we were compiling these libraries, we began to realize the opportunities that might be available to us by accessing this information online.”

The solution

With this in mind, Rasch contacted his Veryon sales rep for help. That was in June 2011, not long after Veryon's introduction of the popular new online companion to its highly successful desktop platform.

“We talked to Veryon and said, ‘Here is what we have, and here is what we want to accomplish. And by the way, can you take a look at whether going online would be a solution?’” Rasch said.

After an initial review, it was clear that Veryon's online service – now Veryon Publications – could help Atlantic move access to its maintenance libraries to a convenient, configurable, and scalable online location without adding more computer equipment or IT staff. Not only would it help Atlantic control costs, but perhaps more important, the company’s mechanics now would have instant, real-time access to maintenance libraries and FAA regulatory information.

“Having the complexities of dealing with different product manufacturers and maintaining a complex mix of information and publications at each location was a big issue for Atlantic,” said Meis. “But perhaps the biggest thing Veryon Publications has done for them is to automate currency. Mike and his team now can rest assured that each and every technician is dealing with current manufacturer service and FAA regulatory information.”

Gone are the days when Atlantic’s maintenance staff had to spend hours ensuring that each library and computer at every location had the necessary manuals on site, as well as access to the latest and most current data. “We feel like Veryon Publications is a much better product for us in that we no longer are required to do the constant updating of libraries,” Rasch said. “It’s all done online for us, which has been a big plus.”

Veryon Publications is an online portal utilizing cloud technology to offer instant access to a wide array of valuable apps that empower users with functionality applicable to their specific business.

Delivered over the World Wide Web using the Software as a Service model, Veryon Publications combines innovative technology, industry expertise, and expedited information access to promote safety and compliance.

The results

Getting set up with Veryon Publications was easy for Atlantic. “In our particular case, I assigned each base administrative rights so they could add and subtract employees as needed,” Rasch said.

Another huge benefit for a growing company like Atlantic has been scalability. Veryon Publications makes it easy to add other locations and users to the service. “One of the advantages of this system is that as we grow and potentially add other FBOs to the chain, if they have maintenance bases, it’s a huge benefit to have our libraries available online and simply sign them up,” said Rasch.

Meis points out that Veryon Publications also makes it easy to control who has access to the system and assign permissions for making changes to data.

“The system can be designed so certain people with administrative rights can input and make changes to the information,” he said. “But in a situation where you want a person to have access but don’t want them to modify information – say with a parts department person – you can allow them to see the information they need, but they can’t change anything.”

You also can easily limit the number of mechanics at each location who have access to maintenance libraries, which further helps to control manufacturer subscription costs. “There’s a lot of functionality that allows each of Atlantic’s maintenance operations to access the publications they need and for the master administrator to control how much or how little access each operation has,” said Meis.