July/August 2023 - 37

DOM DISCUSSION
Military aircraft that
Thornton Aviation
maintains include the
T-38A, F-5B, CF-5D
model aircraft.
THORTON AVIATION
How To Return an
Aircraft to Service
by Walker Jaroch
J
oe Sabatini, director of business development,
Thornton Aviation, joins AMT for this edition of
the Director of Maintenance Discussion to talk
about logging aircraft maintenance the signed
Approval for Return for Service logbook entry.
Sabatini with two other partners started Thornton
Aviation in 1984, then known as Thornton Aircraft,
and served as the chief inspector and director of maintenance for
nearly 25 years. He rejoined Thornton in 2021 and works out of
the company's Hollywood Burbank Airport location. Thornton's
main location is at Van Nuys Airport and today the company is
owned by Stephen Zimmerman.
AMT: To start, what's the process for when an aircraft comes
in for work?
Sabatini: Well, the process would entail a customer coming to
us asking us for maintenance on their aircraft. Typically, they
ask for a quote. Some of them don't. They just say work on it. But
mainly we do a quote, so they know what they're getting into. We
meet with them, go over the quote. Our director of maintenance
makes sure that all the pieces are in place as per our repair station
manual.
Basically, do we have the housing for the aircraft job? Do we
have the experienced people? Do we have parts? Do we have the
appropriate data, technical data and tooling? And that's the first
step. Of course, we get the customer to sign terms and conditions
and give us a credit card or whatever (payment) arrangements
we make with the customer.
AMT: How many would you say you're working on, let's say
a month, on average?
Sabatini: Oh, I would say we probably open 50 to 100 work orders
a month. We've probably got at least 60 technicians. And we have
four AOG teams. So, we've got all the vehicles, vans, trucks for the
support on the road. We go to Las Vegas. We go up to Oakland.
Anything that's a drivable distance, we'll travel to work on airplanes.
That's an AOG basis. We've got a Falcon 2000 in here
currently. We're doing a 2C inspection, landing gear overhauls,
cabin management system installations, all sorts of good stuff.
AMT: After meeting with the customer, what are the next
steps once you're getting underway with the work?
Sabatini: We open a work order and procedures are lined out in
our repair station manual. We use CORRIDOR for work orders,
discrepancy and squawk rectification, and time tracking. It's not
a maintenance tracking program, but it's how we do our invoicing
and our billing and our discrepancies and corrective actions. It
tracks labor, parts, all that makes for a concise shop visit.
So, we open a work order, we enter all the items. Let's say we're
doing a 72-month inspection on a G4. The customer will usually
www.AviationPros.com 37
We do big C checks and 48 months, 72 months inspections
that are obviously scheduled in. But the day-to-day maintenance
is just, we get a call -'Hey, we got a bad tire, or the APU is not
starting,' or whatever the case may be, and we fit them in the
schedule as we can. Obviously, if they're the customer AOG, they
get a little higher priority.
http://www.AviationPros.com
July/August 2023

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