MD man makes success of Frederick Flight Center

Patrick McFadden had always been successful in sales. At 50, things were going well. Then his life changed. It happened one Sunday afternoon. McFadden and his wife, Kathleen, a successful physical therapist, were relaxing and reading the Sunday paper.

I was reading an article about 'growing your brain,' Kathleen recalls. It said we had to continually exercise our brains, or else!

Kathleen looked over at Patrick, who was happily reading the funnies, and said, I'm going to throw pottery, what are you going to do?

Fateful words.

The next day I drove over to the airport in Frederick and walked up to the counter at the flight school and said, 'I want to learn to fly,' he says. Lucky me! There was an instructor available and a plane on the tarmac and up I went for my first flight.

McFadden was hooked. He was a natural, and the exhilaration of mastering a new skill was overpowering. McFadden quickly certified, and six weeks after his first flight he bought his first airplane, a brand-new Cessna for $160,000.

McFadden is the first one to tell you he's not a rich man, and $160,000 was a steep price. However, the flight school needed another aircraft for its growing program.

If he bought the plane, he could lease it back to the school and fly for free (excluding the cost of fuel and maintenance). McFadden doesn't jump at anything, and he went over the numbers several times, and each time the bottom line made sense. On top of that, the Cessna mailed a rebate check of $4,000.

The flight school was extremely busy and about six weeks later Patrick got a check in the mail from the flight school. After all the costs had been deducted, McFadden had netted more than $1,000.

When I made up my mind to buy the plane, Kathleen looked at me as if I was crazy and asked me if I knew what I was doing, says McFadden, recalling the purchase.

As the checks steadily rolled in, she began to ask, Why don't we buy another plane? And that's exactly what they did. Now they own two aircraft.

First the plane, then -

McFadden was a regular at the airport and the flight school, taking lessons and honing his skills. He asked lots of questions, and got to know the two owners very well.

One day, about two years after buying his first plane, they approached him and asked him if he would be interested in buying the business.

They were doing extremely well, but they had their eye on other ventures. McFadden didn't jump at the opportunity.

This was a huge step, and deep down inside I wanted to do it, remembers McFadden. However, I had a great job with a good income, and I decided to take my time and do some hard due diligence.

First, he hired a company with a lot of expertise in the area of flying an aircraft to value the company. The valuation process was expensive, but McFadden feels it was well worth it.

He also talked to everyone he knew to get as much information as possible before finally deciding to buy the company.

As the process got underway, McFadden left his job and began working at the flight school, at every level, from sweeping floors and cleaning toilets to watching the mechanics. He also spent a lot of time with the flight instructors to learn how they marketed the company.

A major issue was financing. He talked to several banks, finally hooking up with Bill Kissner at Frederick County Bank. Kissner had a lot of experience in aircraft lending. The two hit it off, and Frederick County Bank arranged the financing.

Frederick Flight Center is every banker's model of the 'perfect customer,' says Denise Guyton-Gaither, Commercial Lending VP. I feel like we are partners in a friendly yet very professional business relationship.

Flying high

On March 1, 2002, Patrick McFadden was new president and owner of Frederick Flight Center (http://www.frederickflightcenter.com).

He will never forget his first day at his new job. He walked into the office, greeted everyone, got a cup of coffee, and sat down at his desk, and thought, Oh my gosh, what am I going to do?

I could mop floors, I could arrange merchandise on the shelves, and I could greet customers, but at first, there was a little surge of panic, recalls McFadden. My first fear was that I knew I could be successful, but would aviation be successful?

Fortunately for Frederick Flight Center, Patrick McFadden fully understands his unique abilities.

I'm a great facilitator, he explains. I know how to work with my employees and how to deal with customers. I also know that I need to have a presence here.

McFadden's management style is to find out the unique strengths of each of his employees and then help them play to their strengths.

Frederick Flight Center has been extremely successful in the past year and a half. McFadden has done a lot of advertising on radio and in the newspapers, and is a participant in the Be a Pilot Dot Com network.

Our initial lesson is $49, McFadden explains. We treat customers as if they were the pilots, having them do the walk-around and flight checkout, and then, with an instructor ready to take over, we let them fly the airplane. For almost everyone, it is such an exhilarating experience that most continue with the training.

McFadden also helps student pilots and experienced pilots buy their own aircraft by leasing them back to the flight center. However, he is very careful not to sell an aircraft unless he feels the increasing business can absorb them and it won't create an undue cost for the buyer.

McFadden is excited about the future. He has a great partner in Frederick County Bank, and he expects to expand his business over the next couple of years. Of course, expansion means more jobs.

We want to be good for Frederick, McFadden smiles.

Neil R. G. Young, CLU, ChFC, is president of Young & Company, a financial planning firm in Lutherville. If you have any comments or questions, you can send him an e-mail at neil@yco.com or call at 410- 494-7766. The Web site is http://www.yco.com.

Copyright 2003 Dolan Media Newswires
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