Page 6 - July 2022

Buchanan Hauling & Rigging now employs 600 people and operates 300 trucks, 1,000 trailers and a Beechcraft King Air 350. Geary admits that when he launched the business, he believed it could eventually be a $100 million enterprise. But he hadn’t imagined the $400 million year they are on track to have this year, or that the company’s success would allow him to purchase his first aircraft, the King Air 350, in April 2021.
He owns the aircraft personally and uses it 80% for business travel and 20% for personal trips. Last month he was thrilled to donate his 350 and participate in the Special Olympics Airlift organized by Textron Aviation, an experience that added another rewarding layer to aircraft ownership on top of getting to share the plane with his large family and his employees.
A later-in-life pilot
Geary originally planned to become a music teacher but dropped out after three years at Indiana State University and began driving a truck. He was 45 years old when he and Becky started Buchanan Hauling & Rigging. Fifteen years later, in 2011, the company was grossing $50 million a year but he said he still held on to the feeling that he didn’t finish things he started.
His maternal grandfather had become a recreational pilot later in life, and Geary thought taking lessons and earning his private pilot’s certificate would give him a sense of accomplishment. He started lessons at the
age of 60 at Smith Field, just north of his office in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
“I took lessons, soloed and accomplished my check ride in the Diamond DA20,” he said.
He also was motivated by the fact that flying on his own schedule could help the business because he would be able to visit customers more easily, with many just a 200 to 300 mile trip away.
“During that time, there was a Cirrus on the field that I rented and started taking some business trips,” he said. “I’d fly to Kansas City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Nashville – I could go there and back in the same day. I got my instrument rating in 2013 and was flying about 200 hours a year in leased aircraft.”
His flying career has been on hold since October 2017, when he had a bout with double vision while driving a car and lost his medical certificate. He is working with his doctors to get back in the left seat, but for now he is content letting two experienced pilots fly his airplane.
Geary calls himself the “ultimate dreamer” and one of his dreams was to own an aircraft. Just before turning 70 in 2021, he purchased his first plane: N831LS, a 2007 King Air 350.
He chose the King Air for its reliability and safety record, and the 350’s size and range is ideal for trips from the home office of Buchanan Hauling & Rigging in Fort Wayne. The company’s largest footprint is within Indiana, ›
Buchanan Hauling & Rigging started as a flatbed hauling company with one truck and two trailers and is now a full-service logistics company with 600 employees operating 300 trucks and 1,000 trailers.
4 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
JULY 2022