Orlando, FL FBO Sold To Atlantic Aviation

Showalter Flying Service fought the good fight, but in the end, the owners of the company that has operated at three airports in Orlando, FL since 1945 decided that it was finally time to throw in the towel.

The owners sent a copy of their final newsletter "Fly Paper" to ANN. It is reproduced in its entirety below.

THE FLY PAPER
SHOWALTER FLYING SERVICE
DECEMBER 2014
GPS
There is almost no one flying today who isn’t familiar with what a GPS does and how it works. For the purposes of this article we’re going to focus on how it helps you set a new direction.

The letters GPS customarily mean Global Positioning Satellite. In what you are reading now they mean Gratitude, Pride and Sadness.

With this edition of the Flypaper, the Showalter Family is saying goodbye to the FBO business. After 70 years Showalter Flying Service is being sold to Atlantic Aviation; thus, the Gratitude, Pride and Sadness.

We are going to be heading in a new direction; much of it unknown. We are “Grateful” beyond anything we can put on paper for you, our customers and friends over all of these years. When we bought into the business 41 years ago we had no children (although Jenny was well on her
way). Today we have Jenny, Sandy (Joseph Sands, II) and their four boys, Evan, Kyle, Jake and Luke that you have watched grow up at the airport. As adults we know just how lucky they have been. We just hope that they will look back on this with “gratitude” for the unique experience they have been allowed to have.

We are grateful for the loyalty of so many of you (although no one can come close to Steve High’s record). You have been with us through the many good years and many that have been challenging, but through all
of it you have remained loyal. That is a quality that is less revered in businesses today. We are choosing to leave before that can happen here.

We leave with a great sense of “Pride.” We have a safety record that we feel confident in saying is unmatched in our industry – not only where customer’s aircraft are concerned, but more importantly, the
safety of our people. When you have the most dedicated people choose to work with you, and in many cases give you all or the majority of their working careers, they deserve nothing less. (We joke that at
some point everyone in General Aviation has worked for Showalter.) We took our responsibility to them personally.

And yes, we leave with “Sadness.” We will miss you. We will miss the daily interaction. I will miss saying “Good morning, John.” It IS the small things that have created the fabric of our last 41 years. The memories and experiences bring great joy and satisfaction. God has truly blessed our family and our business.

He still is. We can look back over the last 4 decades and see His hands at work in every major decision and in our daily interactions. He is with us now.

Many will ask “why?” or “why now?” This has been a decision years in the making. For a long time we have talked about being a dinosaur in our industry. Our industry is rapidly changing, as are so many others.
Competing as a single, stand-alone business has become more difficult. We don’t have the economy of scale that the chain FBO’s have. And then there are the hours and the risks. In 41 years we have been closed 1 day! (The hurricane didn’t hit!) And every moment you are open you have risk. Risk for peoples’ safety and customer’s aircraft.

Leaving all of you is the hardest part, but we are excited about what the future holds and trust that Atlantic Aviation will value you as we have. We will still be around the airport. The Aztec will still live here and we are taking the aircraft sales business with us – just under a new name. We will now be Showalter Aviation and Marine. When we settle on our new location, we hope you’ll come and visit.

In the words of Brad – “Peace out”
~Kim Showalter

As usual, Kim is a hard act to follow.
Writing this note just days after Thanksgiving, it is so true that our family has countless things to be thankful for! I think back over the 41 years I have owned and worked at Showalter Flying Service and over the generations of Showalters, myself included, that have grown up here. Being a large part of a 70 year family legacy like Showalter is something that most people will never have the oppor-tunity to experience and I am grateful for all of the memories. What stands out most in my mind are all of the great people that helped our family get to where we are today:

• All of the flight instructors that safely taught thousands of pilots to fly in our early days.
• All of the dedicated line service employees who provided accurate and safe service no matter what the weather or hour of the night.
• The talented desk folks that mastered the incredibly complex nature of that job.
• The many wonderful based customers and corporate pilots who over the years became more than customers...they became our friends.
• The veteran employees who added so much to our company over the years: Rachel Haymes, Bryant Bouslog, Dan Nodorft, John Stafford, Jane Kimball, Ralph Loos, Monroe Hobby, Dawn Dowd, Shay Peterson and Travis Brown stand out among many others!
• Accomplishing 9 NBAA shows here in Orlando and another 5 NBAA Static Displays in other cities with no injuries and not so much as a broken static wick.
• We have helped launch the careers of countless airline captains, industry executives and even an Air Force One commander! It has been a constant thrill to watch these eagles spread their wings!

These folks and many more helped us remain open all but the one day Kim mentioned of the 41 years we owned the FBO.

As Kim also said, we look forward to seeing many of you as we become customers of Atlantic Aviation ourselves. Nothing is more constant than change. As a family, we are all so thankful to have had the chance to be in this business so long. As this chapter in my life closes, I too am grateful, proud and sad.

Thank you! Thank you and God’s Blessings to each of you!
~Bob Showalter

To all of you I first want to say thank you. You have fulfilled me and the rest of my family in ways you won’t ever know. There are customers and friends, some of you reading this, who say “good morning” to my two little boys as they run through the lobby who said that same “good morning” to me as I ran through when I was a little boy. Immediate relatives of current customers said “good morning” to my father when he was a young boy. That idea that a little busi-ness at the airport can run so deeply through so many lives for so long overwhelms me. I am also overwhelmed with pride that my parents are my parents. For 40 years they have had their rear ends on the line every single day, and they did it with grace, understanding, and very much as a team. It wasn’t always pretty, mistakes were made and decisions regretted, but this decision is the right one. They deeply deserve the exit they are receiving.

I was walking my dog in my neighborhood a few days ago and a longtime customer (and his longtime dog!) were com-ing the other direction. We said our hellos and talked airplanes for a while, which we always do. Because he was one of the folks I wanted to inform of this change personally I took the opportunity to do so. We talked about all of the “whys,” all of the emotions, and at the end of our conversation he said, “congratulations, and I’m sorry.” He nailed it. We are rightly proud of our reputation, proud of our accomplishments, and proud of what the hard work and dedica-tion of a bunch of wonderful people can build. Congratulations are indeed in order. But we are also sad and we will miss you and the daily interaction with this place very much. The good news, as mentioned, is that we will continue to “be around.” Our airplane will continue to live here, as will any sales aircraft that we have. My kids will still ride bikes on a nice weekend afternoon out on the ramp, and none of us will be strangers around the FBO. More good news is that we feel very good about your future with Atlantic Aviation.

We’ll be sure to keep everyone updated on our new offices so you can drop by. And all the nitty-gritty “airplane stuff” we’ve helped you out with in the past we’ll still be able to help with. Once again, from the bottom of my family’s heart, thank you.
~Sandy Showalter

Growing up, I described having a family business of this magnitude as if there were five immediate family members (mom, dad, Sandy, me and the business), not four - except the business was the moodiest of us all and there was a trickledown effect. When times were good and the business was thriving, so were the rest of us. During times of struggle with the business, the rest of us struggled too.

It is with mixed emotions that we say goodbye to this chapter ... one that has lasted my entire life. On the positive side, I know all of us will breathe a deep sigh of relief when the liability, danger, and volatility of owning an FBO no longer exists. Mom and Dad have put their heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears into Showalter Flying Service for over 4 decades, and they deserve this opportunity to “retire” and live without carrying the constant weight of the business on their shoulders.

With the good comes the bad, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that the hardest part of saying goodbye is you! Let’s face it, in today’s world, there are few opportunities for success in small business. The only exit strategy that existed for our family was to sell the business. We have known this reality for a long time, but we are all deeply sad to leave the comfortable world of Showalter where all we had to do was show up for work each day and be delighted by the people, employees and customers alike, that walked through our doors. Call us crazy, but for us it is, and always will be about relationships.

While many faces at Showalter will be changing as we make the transition to Atlantic Aviation, many will remain the same. It is our hope that we have left you in the best hands and that the transition is ultimately positive for us all. Although none of us really know what the future holds, I pray that there are calm winds, clear skies and an equal number of takeoffs and landings ahead for us all!
~Jenny Showalter

(Image provided by Showalter Flying Service)

FMI: http://www.showalter.com/