Priest river`s Aerocet oPtimistic About the future

Progress • March, 2015 35
PRIEST RIVER/PRIEST LAKE
Priest river’s Aerocet oPtimistic About the future
By TERRI IVIE
Staff writer
PRIEST RIVER — Home is where
the float is.
In other words, Aerocet considers
Priest River their home and possible expansion plans are focused
on remaining here because it is
Aerocet’s preference and goal to continue to support the community that
has supported them for 29 years.
They are currently working
with the Priest River Development
Corporation, the City of Priest
River, Bonner County, State
Representatives and branches of government on expansion plans for both
space and efficiency reasons. But
other sites are part of the feasibility
study.
They currently have one building
that has 15,000 square feet and one
that has 20,000 square feet and they
state they seem to be getting smaller
and farther apart every day. They
have had custom steel overhead
racks built to store tooling when not
in use to try and free up floor space.
They also implemented certain lean
manufacturing principles and practices to conserve and free up additional
—Photo by TERRI IVIE
Aerocet owner Tom Hamilton after returning with these new
floats from Renton, Wash., recently.
space. They rented a building for
storage that is completely full. With
limited options left, Aerocet has to
at least entertain expansion with the
potential growth they are seeing and
with perceived future needs. A building with a range size of 50,000-75,000
square feet could be needed.
—Photo by TERRI IVIE
This trio of Aerocet employees are part of the Aerospace Center
of Excellence program. Pictured, from left, are Cason Spencer, and
veterans Sonya Kelley and Spencer Rhodes.
In the region, Aerocet has been
instrumental in the beginnings of the
Idaho Aerospace Alliance, the North
Idaho College’s Aerospace Center of
Excellence and starting this spring
for the very first time there will be a
4H Aerospace Program. It will be in
Sandpoint thanks to a pilot at Quest
Aircraft Company taking a referral
from Aerocet on the program and
running with it. Aerocet hosted a
tour of 28 Sandpoint High School
students who are going through the
schools specialized program geared
to teaching students who have an
interest in advanced manufacturing
technologies and aerospace. A few
of the students actually have their
pilots license.
The Aerospace Center of
Excellence program has been a
great success. It was set up through
a grant that was to retrain veterans
and find them gainful employment.
Aerocet has hired two retrained
veteran employees through the NIC
Aerospace Center of Excellence program and one non-veteran through
the program.
Aerocet is entering into a
Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) with NIC to be an official
NIC extension location for their aerospace composites program. They
wanted to offer the NIC Aerospace
program in closer proximity to local
residents. I
“It is good for Aerocet and
good for the community, so we
approached NIC and they were
amazing, they stepped right up and
we met several times to hash out
the logistics. We have installed the
composites ovens and work benches.
NIC will supply a tool kit to students
and curriculum,” Garry Hojan,
Operations Manager said. “Aerocet
has a composites instructor on staff
who will teach the lab classes after
hours,” he added.
There will be evening classes that
begin in May. Watch for upcoming
information events that are going to
be held in April in Priest River and
Sandpoint. Anyone from Bonners
Ferry to Sandpoint to Priest River
can go to the NIC Sandpoint office
and do the composites theory program online and then do the lab
work in Aerocet’s classroom/production environment.
Aerocet is always looking for
dedicated and qualified individuals to join their team, and if they
go through this program they will
actually have a starting wage that
is $1-$2/hour higher to start than
if they came in without taking the
courses. If they continue with the
additional courses in the program
through NIC they can make another
$1-$2/hour.
In 2009, Aerocet was adversely
affected by the recession and
through layoffs went from a high of
40 employees down to only 15. Just
five years later, Aerocet has rebuilt
the company and now employs 47
people, not including owners Tom
and Linda Hamilton.
Aerocet is in the midst of the
largest research and development
project the company has ever undertaken, the development and FAA
See AEROCET, Page 37
Progress • March, 2015 37
AEROCET
Continued from Page 35
certification of amphibious (can
land on water or land) carbon fiber
hybrid floats for the Quest Kodiak
aircraft. The program began in
2005 and progressed very slowly
in the background until 2010 when
it came to a complete halt due to
uncertainties over Quest’s sustainability.
By 2012, Quest bolstered their
resources to continue the Kodiak
program and Aerocet turned the
program back on in earnest. To
date, Aerocet has invested close to
$5 million in the program, and it
has put a strain on the company’s
resources at times, but better
than expected sales revenue in
existing product and contract
manufacturing has helped offset
the research and development
burden.
Aerocet sees the Quest
purchases by Setouchi as a positive move for Quest and believes it
will also have a positive impact on
Aerocet. Company officials speculate this purchase will provide
Quest resources for expansion and
if Quest expands there is a possibility that the Aerocet expansion
will come to fruition since they are
a Tier one supplier to Quest.
“We are thankful that the purchase includes the intention of
keeping operations in Sandpoint
and keeping the current Quest
employee base,” Hojan noted.
Aerocet has to go through two
certification/approval processes
for each of its certified products.
First they have to certify the product on its own, this is called a TSO
or Technical Standard Order. This
applies only to the floats and does
not take into account the aircraft
the project will be installed on.
The second approval is called
an STC or Supplemental Type
Certificate. This is specific to each
and every model of aircraft that
the floats will be installed on. A
separate STC approval is required
for each aircraft model/type. All of
this is resource and capital inten-
sive as you can tell by the amount
of investment already made.
Aerocet estimated receiving both
oft the approvals within the next
few months.
The Kodiak floats, Aerocet
Model 6650, will be a game
changer for Aerocet. Currently
the largest floats they sell are a
5850 series straight float (can only
land on water) for the de Havilland
Beaver and the list price on them
is $70,000. The Model 6650 floats
for the Kodiak are amphibious
and have dual landing gear main
wheels, larger than anything they
have built to date and they will
have a list price in the hundreds of
thousands of dollars. The price will
be finalized once certification is
obtained. This includes the installation hardware but not the actual
installation which is typically performed at authorized dealers and
service centers.
Of course the research and
development and liability insurance
costs are extremely high, however
the product will allow Aerocet to
continue adding product lines, take
care of their current employees,
add additional employment and
expand their customer base, all
which helps the local economy
and meets needs within the community. Aerocet expects to break
through the 50 employee mark
very shortly after the certification
program is complete and continue
to grow beyond that.
Aerocet is very active in
the community, the region and
throughout the world. They volunteer and donate to various charities and causes such as Hospice,
Advocates for Women, Priest River
Community Foundation, the food
bank, the senior center, the Lions,
Rotary, and Relay for Life, as well
as others.
Aerocet is a large part of
the success in the Industrial
Park on Shannon Lane and join
Lone Wolf Distributors, Selkirk
Timber Wrights, FMI, Recycling
Equipment Manufacturing,
Carousel/Ski To, Safetyline, Inc.
and Freez Manufacturing.
– Local Business Owners Pay Local Taxes
– Local Business Owners Employ Locals
– Local Business Owners Support our Schools
– Local Business Owners Make Their Community Better
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