Owner Quintin DeGroot is constructing a new building on the municipal airport grounds that will double his business space and provide a 70 foot hangar door for larger aircraft to be serviced indoors. The new facility will also provide space for an expanded pilot’s lounge and a gift shop, especially for pilots, to be run by his wife, Jane.

While the techs handle a lot of needs for individual private plane pilots, they are also preparing to equip fire bombers from Minnesota and South Dakota with infrared imaging cameras and other double redundancy radio needs, so those pilots can see and communicate effectively as they fly through smoke in their former crop-dusting planes.

The company tries to keep most repairs to a half-day’s time, but installations can run from one day to two months. DeGroot expects the federally-mandated change (to higher frequency emergency locator transmitters) will require more service time as new cabling will have to be installed in some planes. In addition, planes that he and his techs work on now are already rewiring for the required equipment that will need to be installed in two years.

DeGroot requested assistance from Kelly McCarty at the Northwest Iowa SBDC on the recommendation of both his current banker and the local economic development corporation. He says; “Kelly at Northwest Iowa SBDC and Chuck at American State Bank in Hospers were great to work with. They were both very encouraging to me. They have helped me with avoiding some of the money worries and Kelly has helped me with a lot of paper work, which is not my thing. I am glad the SBDC is around; it gives a small business like Spencer Avionics the chance to expand. THANK YOU!”

With the assistance of the Northwest Iowa SBDC financial projections and the necessary information were prepared and submitted to apply for an SBA 504 loan through Siouxland Economic Development Corporation. The loan was approved in December 2007 and construction of the new building began in Spring 2008.

This new facility will help the company to service many different sizes of planes and provide more comfortable working space for the technicians. Spencer Avionics expects to add at least one more tech job by the end of 2008. The more efficient facility will allow for more installs and maintenance of equipment and the company projects sales to increase from $600,000 to over $1,000,000 by the end of 2010.