Randy Porter doesn’t cut corners. He is given a task, meets it head on, and that’s how he’s lived his life.
“It started with summer and after school jobs working at small agricultural airports,” the 57-year old MRO mechanic at Aereos recounts. He’s been around aircraft and flying since those early days when he loaded hoppers and serviced the crop dusting planes near his home. “I was fueling and turning props on Pratt & Whitney and Wright radial engines at a very young age. There were Air Tractors, Thrush, Grumman Ag Cats (A & B mods), Snow and Dromedair…Cessna even had a model, but its weight capacity and horsepower were very limited.”
The son of a welder, Randy was in machine shops at an early age; he credits his father for the inspiration to follow this as a career. It seemed a natural fit for him, given how much he enjoyed working in welding and repair shops as a youngster, and it was better than the alternative, “my desire was to become something other than a cotton farmer.” That, of course, is a man speaking humbly.
Talking to him about his work at EulessAero, in Euless, Texas, he sheds his cool persona. He becomes a proud employee of the 50 year-old aircraft parts manufacturing company located in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. When asked about reducing lead times for their clients he replies, “There are many procedures we have in place, the most important thing is diligence.” With the additional assistance of Industrious, an internal ERP program, Randy tracks, “in real time, all aspects of our day to day, monthly and yearly operations,” for every part to our customers. “We constantly strive for process improvement for a better finished product, delivered to our customers on time.”
To keep up with technology demands, Randy evolves quickly with equipment advances. It’s a strong suit, and a regular demonstration of pioneering, an Aereos company value. Luckily, he and EulessAero are on top of the ever-changing environment. “Metal-cutting technology is developing at a very fast pace, and our tooling vendors work closely with us to ensure we always have the latest innovations in cutting tool and work-holding advancements.”
And those innovations are not being wasted. If you are one of Randy’s customers, you can rest assured that he will deliver, using the newest equipment and latest innovations. “There were some very unusual shaped forgings for helicopter main rotors that presented major work-holding challenges and unusual cutting strategies. We accomplished our goal, and were one of only two companies in the country with the capabilities…and the fortitude to make these replacement parts for an aging helicopter design.”