Page 5 - Volume 12, Number 7

The 2002 King Air 200 flying near Otis Eastern Service headquarters in Wellsville in southwestern New York.
Three generations of pipeline executives: (left to right) Casey Joyce, Charlie Joyce and the late Charles H. Joyce have all led Otis Eastern Service. (PORTRAIT BY ARTIST DAVID WILLIAM TERRY)
Job sites and client offices have grown in number and in geographic scope, so in 2015 the company based in southwestern New York transitioned from a long-term charter agreement in a Piper Navajo piston twin to owning a 2002 King Air 200 turboprop.
Bidding on jobs, delivering engineers and blueprints, and getting pipeline personnel to each job site on a regular basis is a part of everyday business for the company. And spending 300-400 hours each year in the aircraft also makes in-flight communication as vital as what happens once employees land, so Otis Eastern enthusiastically became the first King Air operator to install Airtext hardware.
“We needed something that was a good option, worked well and was within our cost parameters, so we were happy to try out Airtext,” Joyce said. “We’ve been very satisfied. It’s made the King Air an even better tool in our toolbox.”
A pipeline of business aircraft
The Joyce family has embraced private aviation for almost seven decades. They are located in Wellsville, New York, which is about a two-hour drive from a major airport with commercial service.
“My uncle, who along with my father was a partner in an earlier pipeline construction firm, owned several planes through the years, from Piper Cubs to a Douglas DC-3,” Joyce said. “In the early 1960s, he bought a Piper Aztec and we used it to ferry supplies and people to our projects. At that time, we also had a Bell 47 J-2 helicopter that came in handy on remote jobs. It gives us a strategic advantage and helps us stay in touch with our projects and with our customers.”
JULY 2018
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 3