Joel's Journal: Constraints and Contingencies

This weekend I reached down into my chrono-file to catch up on some of the reading I have put off. At the top of my list was the bankruptcy, in September of 2007, of Columbia Aircraft in Bend, Oregon. Lancair/Columbia first came to my attention in the early nineties, as a Southern California producer of kit planes.

Columbia achieved positive national recognition in 2002, on the 75th Anniversary of Charles Lindbergh's Trans Atlantic flight. Grandson, Erik Lindbergh, "honored the Lindbergh legacy by re-creating the 3,600-mile voyage in a single-engine Lancair Columbia 300."

At 450 employees, Columbia is not really a small business. But their twenty-year history with Central Oregon, and growth from small business transplant to medium-size business, certainly earns both credit and examination.

I am sad that the unique badge of Lancair/Columbia will no longer exist. I am relieved that Cessna Aircraft came to their rescue.

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Cessna buys Columbia Aircraft in $26 million deal

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The four-hundred plus jobs, are promised to stay in the Bend area.

I believe Columbia's fate can serve as an example of constraints and contingencies for small and medium-size businesses. In 2006 Columbia Aircraft had delivery problems with avionics supplier, Garmin International. This created a months-long production delay. Also, in 2006, a hailstorm damaged 70 completed aircraft waiting delivery to their buyers.

Finding an alternative avionics package is not like having another hardware supplier on hand. However, the weather damage leaves me scratching my head. Weather is hard-wired into the psyche of aviation-types. Why potential hail damage was not part of their check-list is a mystery to me.

This can serve as a lesson to all of us to do the "what if" in the review of our business processes. The "experts" can miss something. Sometimes the obvious gets overlooked with extreme consequences.

Though this adds some turbulence to the Bend, Oregon business climate, the Central Oregon Economic Development Corporation has experience with the aviation industry.

Examples include:

PCC Schlosser, Precise Flight, Mt. High Oxygen Systems, Electronics International and Leading Edge Aviation. Additionally, EDCO is working behind the scenes to recruit new aircraft manufacturing operations here as well as suppliers, which will only add to the vibrancy of the industry cluster.

Another Bend based aviation business, kit plane Epic Aviation, has taken on a new partner. Epic will produce what is called Very Light Jets (VLJ)

In a deal that provides VLJ manufacturer Epic Aviation with the ability to accelerate certification for its family of aircraft, Epic President and CEO Rick Schrameck, completed a new partnership with Indian billionaire Dr. Vijay Mallya, owner and operator of Indian airline Kingfisher ...

Still, I am sorry to see Columbia Aircraft go.

Joel