Page 6 - Volume 10 Number 11

LEAP engine program two years in a row. The LEAP program is the biggest jet engine program in GE’s history.
Vierling also currently serves as chairman of the board of a South Carolina company called Avtec Inc. that makes command and control consoles for the railroad and airline industries. In the last three years, Avtec has been one of the fastest growing companies in South Carolina, quadrupling its business.
While still managing his consulting business, with clients in Ohio and South Carolina, Vierling has been advising a small company in Athens, Ohio, Sterling Ultra Cold, in which he serves as chairman of its board. The company manufactures ultra-cold freezers (-80 degrees Fahrenheit) for bio-medical research. It has developed a technology based on the Sterling engine that uses one- third of the energy of its competitor’s product, as well as using refrigerant that is environmentally sustainable. The company has grown its business 100 percent per year for the last four years.
When asked what he thought contributed to his business success, Vierling answered, “I learned a lot from the first business I started and ran for 18 years, CTC. It was unusual at the time to have a small, high- tech start-up in the Midwest. We had a lot of bigger and more established competitors and I had to learn a lot in a quick manner to keep up in the industry.” He continued, “I’ve also used the talents of several key employees from that first company and hired them to work at the other companies. I think building strong teams with good employees and developing them through mentoring and letting them feel success has also proven well for me.”
Leaping into Business Aviation
Vierling took the same “gung-ho” approach to becoming a pilot as he did with his businesses. He had flown with a friend in his Piper Archer and says, “As it is with many people who take a flight in a personal airplane – the rest is history; I was hooked. My friend had a partner in the Archer, Ken Grause, who happened to be a flight instructor, and he called me one day and said he’d been looking into my consulting business
4 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
Jay Vierling jumped up to flying the King Air from a Cirrus (both shown here) and says having the same avionics made the transition a bit easier.
online. He then asked if he helped me learn how to fly, if I would help him with his company, Technically Advanced Aircraft training.” Vierling’s reply: “Let me think about that ... yes!”
He soon became the third partner of the Archer and signed on to be a partner with the other two in a brand- new 2005 Cirrus SR22 GTS. Vierling was still taking lessons and hadn’t received his private pilot license when the trio ordered the airplane. He passed his check ride and flew to Cirrus Aircraft with his partners for transition training in the same month.
Vierling started training for his instrument rating, which he got the following year; a year or two after, he acquired his commercial. “I fell in love with the flat panel avionics on the Cirrus and flew the airplane as much as my two partners combined,” he said. “I also helped a local law firm who had purchased a Cirrus and needed a commercial pilot when I could fit it in my schedule.”
About four years later, it was time for a major engine expenditure, so the partners bought a 2009 SR22 G3 with G1000 avionics and FIKI. Vierling said he had been grounded too many times because of ice so the flight into known icing system was a must-have.
As Vierling’s consulting business grew and he started serving on the boards of various companies, he needed to get an airplane that would carry more people and fly above the clouds without the need for supplemental oxygen. He had researched the Pilatus and decided on the King Air because of the two engines, roominess in the cabin, and the ability to be serviced anywhere in the world, with ample parts support.
One partner had already sold out and Ken, the remaining partner in the Cirrus, had become a Platinum CSIP (Cirrus Standardized Instruction Pilot). Vierling tried to find a new partner for his King Air, but plans kept falling through, so he set out to find an airplane that he could afford and refurbish to his liking. “I thought
NOVEMBER 2016