FLAWED PARTNERSHIP

OUR COMPANY WAS GETTING READY TO UNDERGO ANOTHER transition. The change in the company's name, from Air Repair to Tramco also signaled a changing of hands, from Ron Crockett to Bob Trimble. Before taking up his position in Air Repair, Bob had worked with Boeing for many years.
Once the formalities of ownership change were underway, the company decided to move from Renton airport to a warehouse situated a few miles away. It was only then I realized why Bob had insisted that I should take over as manager of the component shop, replacing Paul. Bob was putting in a new leadership team in place for his new company.
Over the ensuing months, I started looking after all the shops except hangar operations. Even that was debatable as I took my people and helped out in the hangar whenever necessary.

I remember certain days working non-stop for 24 hours to meet customer deadlines. In the process, I was getting across-the-board training, covering almost the entire gamut of aircraft maintenance. Southwest Airlines constantly sent aircraft to get checked for likely repairs and most of the time these planes flew back to Dallas empty. So I got an opportunity to fly to Dallas with my family. My main contacts there were in the purchasing department, Ron Clair, director and Elliott McCullough, manager.
I had told them I was headed out to Dallas. It was also another fact that though we had spoken to each other a few times, there had been no face-to-face encounter.
As soon I landed I headed out to the hangar, keen to meet them at the earliest. As there were several people there, I waited for them to come looking for me. Soon everybody left and I was left wondering what to do next.
Then I noticed two men walking towards me. It was Ron and Elliott. They said they were looking for an Eastern European person because of my name. They never considered the possibility that I was Indian. Since they were looking for a white person and didn't see anyone on the flight, they called back to the office to find out whether I had made the flight.
Once they were told to look for an Indian guy, they realized their mistake and therefore came back. They narrated this story to several people over the years. Why, this was Ron's main anecdote during his retirement speech. These kinds of mix-ups would happen to me on a few more occasions.
I remember going to the office of AAR Corp, the global aircraft service maintenance provider, to meet with senior manager Mr. Weinberg. I was sitting at the reception. I was the only one in the area. Mr. Weinberg came down. Looked around. Looked at me, then past me.

He walked over to the receptionist and asked "Where is John Titus?" She pointed towards me. He walked towards me and told me that even in his wildest dreams, he had never imagined that John Titus would turn out to be an Indian.
All that experience came to weigh down in my favor as I was approached by a friend with the proposal that we start a component shop as a partnership venture. The offer came in 1980, about nine years after I had landed in the US as a student. His name was Bill Perdue. Perdue was the owner of Trew Aviation, a parts broker in the Kent area. He used to bring work to the shop to support his sales business. All this was happening while Tramco was planning to move to Everett about 50 miles north, where the company did all their hangar maintenance work.
When Tramco moved to Everett in 1981, I tried my best to stay with the company. I commuted 50 miles each way for the next two years. Finally, it got to be a big strain, especially after a few tickets and more pertinently, three accidents. In January 1983 I left Tramco and joined full time with Win Air, our new venture, as the Vice President.
The offer Bill made provided me with a great opportunity, that too to be a partner in a business. Bill and I were going to be equal partners. I would bring in the technical expertise while he would take care of the finances. Bill started off with a seed capital of $15,000.00 which we used to buy a hydraulic test bench and a few other test equipment.
Bill and I had jointly started a repair station called Win Air for which I wrote the repair station manual. It was through my contacts with the FAA that we were able to get the certification. Therefore, I was taken aback when Bill told me that he could not invest any more in our venture as his settlement with other partners in Trew Aviation for starting Sonico had set him back by much.

It became evident that the company had no working capital as Bill was not willing to invest any more. It became quite clear that I had to tap other sources for funds if the venture was to survive.
At that time, Boeing had a surplus store in Kent which sold mostly old equipment and tools. On the odd occasion, they had old airplane parts up for sale. I used to spend hours scourging for items I could buy cheaply to bring into the shop and fix them. We were able to find ourselves some truly sensational deals through this route.
One of these finds was quite memorable. I found 28 pilot and passenger windows in a bin at the surplus store for $5.00 each.
When I inspected I realized they were brand new and had been stripped soon after getting installed on aircrafts. I could guess what had happened as I found specks of paint sprayed on these glasses.
I found out that the client demanded that the entire set of windows be replaced, resulting in these brand-new window glasses ending up at the surplus store. I picked them up and had all the paint cleaned with ketone. Then, Win Air was able to re-certify them in overhauled condition.
In less than three months, we sold all 28 windows for $2200.00 each, netting $61,600.00. Our investment was $140.00 and a bit of effort. We managed to find such windfall gains at the surplus store for several years thereafter. Later, Boeing decided to shut down the store and we lost our goldmine.
Over the next couple of years, Win Air grew from a two-em-ployee establishment to one that employed 12. Meantime we moved to a new location where Bill's own company Sonico worked out of one bay and Win Air from the next bay. Our customer base was growing.
During the preceding two years, Win Air could procure the bulk of its business through my contacts with Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines.

It became evident that the company had no working capital as Bill was not willing to invest any more. It became quite clear that I had to tap other sources for funds if the venture was to survive.
At that time, Boeing had a surplus store in Kent which sold mostly old equipment and tools. On the odd occasion, they had old airplane parts up for sale. I used to spend hours scourging for items I could buy cheaply to bring into the shop and fix them. We were able to find ourselves some truly sensational deals through this route.
One of these finds was quite memorable. I found 28 pilot and passenger windows in a bin at the surplus store for $5.00 each.
When I inspected I realized they were brand new and had been stripped soon after getting installed on aircrafts. I could guess what had happened as I found specks of paint sprayed on these glasses.
I found out that the client demanded that the entire set of windows be replaced, resulting in these brand-new window glasses ending up at the surplus store. I picked them up and had all the paint cleaned with ketone. Then, Win Air was able to re-certify them in overhauled condition.
In less than three months, we sold all 28 windows for $2200.00 each, netting $61,600.00. Our investment was $140.00 and a bit of effort. We managed to find such windfall gains at the surplus store for several years thereafter. Later, Boeing decided to shut down the store and we lost our goldmine.
Over the next couple of years, Win Air grew from a two-em-ployee establishment to one that employed 12. Meantime we moved to a new location where Bill's own company Sonico worked out of one bay and Win Air from the next bay. Our customer base was growing.
During the preceding two years, Win Air could procure the bulk of its business through my contacts with Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines.

It was Elliot McCullough and Ron Clair of Southwest with their base in Dallas who had greatly supported me by awarding repair jobs and purchasing materials from Win Air.
There was a Maintenance, Repair and Operations company AirTech in Florida which had a hangar operation out of Miami and it agreed to pay my invoices to keep the cash flow going. By that time, Win Air was doing nearly two million dollars in sales. From January 1983 through September 1984, we grew at a rapid
pace and soon, Win Air became a bigger company than Sonico. This was hard for Bill to digest. Instead of getting the Sonico team to pull up their socks and improve operations, he found a shortcut by seeking to divert all spare part sales from Win Air to Sonico.
I told Bill I had no stake in his company and therefore would agree to his proposal only if he would split the profit with me. Reluctantly he agreed.
Sure, the spare sales were being registered as a Sonico business but I was making good money. After some time, Bill could not take it anymore. He called for a board meeting of Win Air where he tried to take control by claiming that my wife was not a board member.
It was a dubious argument, one that I said I disagreed with. I hired a lawyer, Ernie Vogel, to handle the situation. There was no more hiding, we went hammer and tongs at each other.
The next day morning I woke up to a phone call from shop lead Paul that he could not open the shop using his key. I realized Bill had changed the lock last night.
By the time I arrived at the shop, Bill had opened the shop. He told me that he changed the lock. I called the lawyer and he suggested I do the same. So the next day I stayed late at the shop.

After everybody left I called a locksmith and changed the lock. This cat-and-mouse game went on for a few days. This was stupid I said and told Vogel, my lawyer to make a plan for separation. Even Bill agreed that it was better for both parties to go separate ways.
I held a meeting with the employees and announced that I was going to start a company on my own. I promised to hire all if they decided to go with me. I also told them the setting up of the new company would take a few months and asked them to hold on till the time was ripe.

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