A few years ago, while looking at an advertisement in which a company boasted, alongside a photo of about fifteen employees, of having nearly 150 years of combined expertise, Guy-Paul Mongrain made a remark that gave the entire Aéro Atelier C.M. team a good laugh.
To read the original article in Magazine Aviation (25th anniversary edition), click here: https://magazines.smmedias.ca/V25N4/30/
“My father simply said that to make the same advertisement here, we would have had to move far fewer people into the photo!” recalls his son Manuel, who himself has worked since 2001 at this specialist in Lycoming and Continental engines. The comment caused plenty of laughter, but it was also true. Guy-Paul Mongrain alone had accumulated more than 49 years of expertise, while his brother and brother-in-law had each surpassed 30 years of service. Those are impressive figures and a genuine source of confidence for customers.
A customer base of more than 3,100
Over time, this quality of service allowed Aéro Atelier C.M. to build a strong reputation across Canada and in several French-speaking countries. A significant share of those customers are private pilots, a group the company has always taken great care to serve. “My father never forgot that these customers, by trusting him from the beginning, literally ‘gave birth’ to our company,” Manuel Mongrain emphasizes.
Alongside private pilots are many schools, Approved Maintenance Organizations (AMOs) and other aviation businesses. Importantly, the shop does not perform general aircraft maintenance and does not work directly on aircraft, so as not to compete with the companies that send it engines. “We work only on engines, in the shop, much like manufacturers that can sell and ship an engine to a customer who must then have it installed by a mechanic.”
The art of performance and accessibility
For its customers, Aéro Atelier C.M. can carry out the types of overhaul or repair required for piston engines, as well as work on accessories such as fuel systems, flexible hoses, carburetors, alternators, controllers and magnetos. Since 2012, the team has also specialized in increasing engine performance, with more than 800 units modified at the time of the original article.
To support this business model, the company innovated several years ago by introducing what it calls its “milk run.” This engine pickup and delivery service covers most major regions of Quebec, helping provide delivery times that were generally about twice as short as the average reported at the time.
This performance was also supported by maintaining a large inventory of parts and accessories offered at competitive prices. Over the years, the shop became a distribution centre serving more than 3,000 customers in 21 countries, according to the figures cited in the original article. People sometimes say that being an aircraft engine mechanic is an art, and if so, few artists are as accomplished as the Aéro Atelier C.M. team.