For years, one of my favorite stops at the Sun ‘n Fun show in Florida is to catch up with Mike Jones. Mike’s a sweetheart of a guy, but he’s blunt—and serious—about how he deals with aircraft maintenance at his sprawling, newly renovated shop in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. So serious, in fact, that he actually tries to “run customers out of the maintenance shop” to gauge whether they are as serious about maintenance as they should be. That’s because he’s seen more than one new buyer get stung by complex twins because the aging aircraft fell way behind on maintenance. It’s a problem that’s rampant in the industry.
If his name isn’t familiar, Jones’ Lock & Key refurbishment program might be. For starters, I don’t know anyone in the industry who knows more about every single piece and part in a Piper Navajo than Jones, evident by the Mike Jones Aircraft Lock & Key Navajo refurbishment program, which has expanded to other models including Beech Barons. Early on, Jones bought all of the STC rights to Colemill Enterprises, solid performance mods that have been the industry standard on Navajos, Barons and Twin Cessnas. A seasoned pilot with years of corporate and airline flying under his belt, Jones is the first to admit that his shop isn’t for everyone and he’s humble when admitting that there are plenty of other shops that do good work. But his Lock & Key projects speak for his attention to detail when it comes to refurbishment. Laying on my back in the grass underneath a refurbished Navajo that was on display at the show, I marveled at the work that was done to the aircraft’s landing gear alone and you’d think you’re eyeballing a factory-new machine.