The History of Aircraft Washers, Part One

Academics and business students over the past few periods have studied the fascinating business model of the franchise. Through most of the history of trading under a common currency from Amsterdam to the Global Power House in the United States of America, we have seen franchises lead the way. The first franchise was said to be the Singer Sewing Machine. However, if one carefully studied the Catholic Church or even colonialism itself, one can see that franchises or at least their structure are in all the creations of mankind. This is one of the reasons we study franchises and franchised companies. From Ray Kroc at McDonalds to today’s automaker dealerships, we see franchise branding throughout our civilization.

However, we rarely study the characteristics and humble beginnings of niche franchise companies. This article is about the history of such a company. It is intriguing to read how franchising occurs naturally in free market systems. Below is the story of how Aircraft Wash Guys wash was founded and how they got started in the aircraft wash business. Although there is tremendous data and written articles to back it up, the story is written from a fictitious point of view and opinion, so we do not intend to try to prove anything to anyone, nor do we want to get the founders in trouble. for the fun of the past. We demand freedom of expression, of the press in its entirety since much of it is based on opinion. This, of course, should be familiar to anyone who has read the McDonalds story in Ray Kroc’s “Grinding it Out” or Subway Sandwich Story; “Start small, finish big.”

Aircraft Guys were not always called Aircraft Wash Guys. Founder Mr. Lance Winslow’s original company at age 12 was Speedy Waxers. He stared at the partners. Andrew Rice and Mark Daily, whose father also owned airplanes. In Lance’s family they had a Piper Colt, two-seater, in which Lance had about 80 hours of flight time. Andrew’s father bought a Cessna 150 and Mark’s father had Bellanca Decathlon and Beech Bonanza. He was in the airplane washing and waxing business. Mark Daily became an entrepreneur, Andrew Rice joined the Air Force. All three were in the Civil Air Patrol at the time. Andrew and Lance were also on the Boy Scout Aviation Explorers. Lance eventually became a business owner himself and later sold this business to a friend, Glen Tierney, who was in the Junior ROTC. This was in 1979 at the Camarillo Airport (CMA) in California, just offshore above Los Angeles. After selling Speedy Waxers, Lance began working for a local McDonald’s as an employee for Clay Passion, a franchisee, who owned a Beechcraft Debonair that Lance used to wash weekly. Clay was a long-time customer and his office staff were Car Wash customers for at least a decade at Lance’s other company, Car Wash Guys; http://www.carwashguys.com. Clay promised Lance a quick breakthrough due to his previous business experience and his loyalty to the plane wash. Lance was waiting his turn to enter training to be an assistant principal. In the meantime, he read Ray Kroc’s book and studied every manual and videotape on site and how every detail was accounted for. WOW, he thought, this is how you really do it, this is when Lance decided he would emulate Ray Kroc whenever he could. Glen Tierney later joined the Air Force five months later and left the business, Lance reconnected with all customers and went back into business under the name Aero Wash, then installed more units at the Santa airport. Paula, Van Nuys, Oxnard Airport, and even got accounts in Santa Barbara. Back then we were washing 135 planes a week at approximately $ 10.00 each. (Can you imagine those prices today?)

Back then Lance thought I would try selling airplanes, however I was young and naive and no one would give me a chance. He knew he would do well, he knew almost everyone at five different airports, sales contacts would be a no-brainer. Not only was he young, he was also small for his age. It was hard enough getting people to let him wash their planes at 12 let alone sell planes at 15. So at 15 he formed a jet finder fee business and took a commission for recommending buyers. That’s when ITC’s investment tax credit was removed, America was still in the energy crisis with high fuel prices, and the luxury tax law went into effect next year and killed general aviation. We still had the airplane wash business, but Lance now armed with a driver’s license at sixteen knew no bounds. He started washing fleets for utility companies, California Highway Patrol, post office Jeeps, whatever. At that time we had several independent contractors that we called “franchisees.” Of course, at the time, Lance didn’t really understand the full scope of what a franchise was, he understood McDonald’s and the attention to detail, but he was only beginning to understand what it would one day become. Lance was winning the market in the middle of the recession, he said we don’t participate in recessions. We are also good at downtime, we have been there and we win and we understand the market and the sectors we are in. Here are some articles at the beginning.

http://www.carwashguys.com/history/beginning.html

http://www.carwashguys.com/history/hist2.html

http://www.carwashguys.com/history/hist3.html

http://www.carwashguys.com/history/museum2.shtml

http://www.carwashguys.com/history/museum3.shtml

http://www.carwashguys.com/history/museum6.shtml

Lance founded a company he called Speedy Aircraft Finders. As part of this business, he started the first Aircraft Multiple Listing Service, which was online. Although the Internet was not really being used yet and TRS 80s were just hitting the market. It used dumb terminals and watt lines to send updated listings to airplane brokers. It sold approximately 40 aircraft at the time and helped other brokers do the same. He hired two partners and later they were able to get the spear out of the boss. Two years later, one of the gentlemen went to jail for embezzlement when he sold the same plane to three people, the other was reprimanded for another deal, and ultimately lost everything.

Lance, after being forced to sell his third of the business, went to work for Air Camarillo and started the Aircraft Sales Department determined to outsell those gentlemen. He did and everyone else did. Although he really did not like to make sales, he loved to fly the plane to sell. Sometimes he insisted that all buyers fly all the online jets for sale and many of the deals that Lance had negotiated, before they were allowed to make and offer, sign a conditional sale contract, or buy a plane. So Lance had more flight time on many great planes and he doubts he ever had a dissatisfied customer, they always gave referrals and always came back. It was through this high volume of sales that Mira Slovak, a famous Russian defector during the Cold War, came to Lance with a proposal to help him sell Partnavias. An Italian-made aircraft, which Mira had the sales rights in North America. Lance also became a distributor for that brand.

One day, Mira shows up on an Italian Bi-Plane and asks Lance if he wants to take a ride. Lance says yes. Lance and Mira, the Slovak inventor of the aircraft, maneuvers the Lumshovak, flies at 300 AGL and does the reverse cartwheel and falls through the sky. Then Lance got hooked on aerobatics. There was a time when if Lance couldn’t cage gyros and on a plane so he could do a spin or a barrel or on a stunt plane do a loop or tail glide, he just wouldn’t fly. Got over it fast enough, it gives you a real headache sometimes.

End of part I