When Tom Trumbull bought the Toledo Suburban Airport in Ottawa Lake, Mich., in 1984, he figured that within a few years it would develop into a high-flying business investment.
But general aviation was sick for those first few years, and only later did the investment pay off. This year, the family-owned Suburban Aviation, Inc., will soar to $4.5 million in estimated sales, aided by a lucrative relationship with the Cessna Aircraft Co.
Metcalf has a strong charter business, and Toledo Express has maintenance and air freight, Mr. Trumbull said. ``At a little airport like ours, you have to do something to generate activity, and flight training generates that activity for us.''
Toledo Suburban offers to private and corporate pilots and airplane owners a mixture of a flight training school, airplane sales, and services like airplane fuel, repairs, and storage.
The airport, a mile northeast of Sylvania off of Section Road in Whiteford Township, Mich., caters to business people as well as hobbyists.
It stores about 75 airplanes year round and repairs about 300 airplanes annually. Both storage and repair revenues have grown steadily since 1986 with the addition of new hangars and certifications allowing Suburban Aviation to repair various types of single-engine and twin-engine Cessna aircraft.
Kevin Alexander, dean of the optometry school at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich., has been a pilot 23 years and is a customer of Suburban Aviation. He maintains homes in Toledo and Big Rapids, flying regularly between the two.
``Toledo Suburban really makes it simple for an airplane owner,” he said. ``I've been all over the eastern part of the country in small airplanes, and I have never been treated as well as I have with Suburban Aviation, and that's no exaggeration.''
Mr. Trumbull said he strives to make using the airport easy so that new pilots or aircraft owners can more easily integrate flying into their business or personal life. That vision, though, almost crashed in 1986.
His family founded the former National Family Opinion market research company in suburban Toledo, but when the business was sold in the early 1980s Mr. Trumbull, a pilot since age 16, quit in 1984.
When he learned the airport formerly known as Wagon Wheel Airport was for sale, he bought it and quickly set up a business to sell fuel, provide airplane storage and repairs, and offer lessons using Cessna aircraft.
But two years later, Cessna abruptly halted production of single-engine prop planes due to mounting lawsuits.
So, what initially seemed like a solid business venture didn't look so hot, but Mr. Trumbull decided to stick it out. The company kept operating its flight school, bought a training simulator in 1988, became the local licensing test center for the Federal Aviation Administration.
The company later became an authorized service center for Cessna and later began selling the planes for northwest Ohio and lower Michigan. It is the third-largest Cessna dealership in the world, selling single-engine planes that cost $180,000 to $400,000, Cessna spokesman Jessica Meyer said.
The dealership turned things around financially for Suburban Aviation.
It lengthened the airport's runway to 5,000 feet in 1997 and added an expensive instrument landing broadcast system to help certified pilots land when visibility is poor.
``Overall, it was probably better to start in the bad times rather than the boom times, because, I'll tell you, when things finally turned around, it was a really good feeling,'' Mr. Trumbull said.
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First Published April 28, 2003, 2:24 p.m.
