Bryan Hancock was born and raised in Stuttgart, where watching crop dusters led him to begin flying right after high school. He spent his early career in the aviation industry, working as a commercial pilot after graduating from Comair Aviation Academy.
After 9/11 shook up the aviation industry, he began brokering aircraft parts. In 2010, he and two partners, Shawn Vaughn and Ken Kocialski, started CAVU, which stands for Ceiling & Visibility Unlimited.
Hancock has flown for a variety of airlines, including United Airlines and Air Wisconsin, and privately in the Alaskan bush.
Your business buys and sells commercial aircraft and dismantles some of them for parts. Is this a unique business plan, or do you have competitors that most people just don’t realize are out there?
While our company has a lot of unique features, we do have competitors, but very few are as diverse in all that we do.
How much of your business is reselling used aircraft and how much is the salvage and parts business?
Ninety percent of our company is dismantling and parts versus 10 percent of aircraft sales.
The most famous aircraft “boneyards” are out west in the dry, desert climate. Does the humidity of the Arkansas Delta affect the way you do business?
You are correct. The desert areas are great for storage of aircraft, but the main reason the desert is popular is for long-term storage. Due to the nature of what we are doing in Arkansas, the shorter-term storage time has little to no effect on the aircraft.
We also have two facilities out west in the drier climate and offer longer-term storage for those who believe they may need to regenerate lift at some point. Those locations are in Goodyear, Arizona, and Roswell, New Mexico.
What kind of aircraft parts are commonly resold? Are there safety concerns that are different from, say, an auto salvage yard where someone might buy an entire engine or a door panel?
Almost all the parts on an aircraft are resalable. However, there are parts that wear or fail faster than others, creating a smaller group of faster-selling parts.
There are huge safety concerns, and the FAA deals with this pretty well. All parts that are removed from a commercial aircraft must be sent back through an FAA repair station to be inspected and repaired. One of the biggest problems in the market today is dismantling companies attaching serviceable tags on parts that have not gone through proper inspection. We see a major safety problem with this and therefore do not condone or participate in that practice.
How is your business affected by the ups and downs of aircraft sales?
Our business will always have retiring aircraft. Some years there are more airframes parked by the airlines than others. The numbers parked are determined by the airlines’ needs for lift, which is directly related to the market. So to answer the question, our company is affected by seat capacity needed in the market.
What’s the one thing you wish you had known before you started CAVU in 2010?
For myself, I wish I had known how much fun I would be having. I would have been on my own a lot sooner.