Page 9 - Volume 14 Number 2

Ben Casey
Deanna Wallace
Clint Goff
“We have a great team environment and are really more of a small family
than co-workers.”
-Joe Casey
He didn’t like it as much as he thought he would, though, and as was the case for many airline pilots, he was furloughed after Sept. 11, 2001.
That’s when he started flying a Piper PA-46 Mirage for a private company, which Casey says taught him as much about business as aviation. Seven years later he launched his own company, Casey Aviation, based at Cherokee County Airport (KJSO) near the East Texas city of Jacksonville.
What started as a small ven- ture providing flight instruction in the PA-46 has grown into a multifunctional aviation business with three full-time employees in
FEBRUARY 2020
addition to Casey, who has logged 15,100 total hours. The company still gives flight lessons – and Casey, a Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) in many models of aircraft (including the King Air 300/350), continues to provide checkrides – but after 11 years in business, the firm also acts as an aircraft buyer’s agent/broker, manages two Beechcraft King Airs and offers ferry pilot services.
“The company experienced slow, but sustainable, growth on purpose,” Casey explains. “Although more gradual, expanding the business 100% debt-free allows me to sleep better at night and keep my stress level low.”
Casey Aviation has two flight instructors and one sales division manager, in addition to Casey who oversees the business and jumps in where needed; all four are pilots and instructors. The company also employs two part-timers, one who’s in charge of keeping the aircraft and hangar clean and a photographer who captures photos and video of the aircraft.
“We have a great team en- vironment and are really more of a small family than co-workers,” Casey says. “If something needs to be accomplished and the primary employee who usually carries out the task is unavailable, someone else will jump in and get it done.”
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 7