Seair's Caravans find a Lovely Lady in Australia

While growing the business of Seair over the past couple of decades, Managing Director and Chief Pilot Peter Gash has earned the distinction of being Australia's recognized authority on Caravan operations, as he knows a Sure Thing when he sees one.

It was a Sure Thing when, as a young professional motocross rider for Team Yamaha, Gash was snorkeling on one of the Great Barrier reefs and happened to notice a girl scuba diver below. As he took a deep breath and plunged down for a closer encounter, the young lady named Julie offered him the mouthpiece from her breathing tank. Julie, it turned out, would later become his wife.

Likewise, it was nearly love at first sight some years later when Gash had an opportunity to take controls of an amphibious Caravan Amphibian. After retiring from Team Yamaha and realizing his boyhood dream of learning to fly, he began commercial piloting in 1985 for Seair Pacific, previously called Southport Floatplanes, which operated from the Broadwater on Queensland's Gold Coast. It was during that time that a visiting American offered him a ride in a Caravan on amphibious floats. "That was it for me," Gash said. "I was hooked. I just knew that if I ever could get an opportunity, I would have a Caravan.”

"Dream of a Caravan becomes a bet on a business future”

A few years later after Peter and Julie Gash took over the business and were struggling to make ends meet, there came an opportunity to buy one of the first Cessna Caravans to operate in Australia. Sure thing, they took the chance, and still own and operate their first Caravan, in addition to three others, in a thriving air charter and tourism business.

"No doubt a lot of people probably were laughing when we mortgaged just about everything we owned at the time to buy the Caravan," Gash said. "You see, up until then nobody in Australia had ever paid that much for a single-engine propeller aircraft, and there was much expectation that we'd go bankrupt. But I knew what the Caravan could do, and our success has given others the confidence to buy Cessna Caravans."

Since Gash had been flying a Cessna Model 206 on floats for several years and had become widely regarded as a proficient and accomplished pilot, the government of Malaysia asked him to come north and help them operate their amphibious Caravan.

"I'd go up there for a week or so at a time and fly the airplane for them," Gash said. "Before I knew it, I was flying the Malaysian prime minister around the country. It got to be too much for me being gone for that length of time from the family, so instead of bidding me farewell they offered to lease me the airplane."

The deal - a six-month repayment plan - literally was just a handshake. It occurred so quickly that Gash soon began second-guessing himself over the venture; in particular, he was concerned whether his small business could ever generate enough revenue to support the repayment and operation of the Caravan.

"Buying that first Caravan was the toughest decision of my life," Gash said.  "Before I signed the deal, I travelled to Canada and the western U.S. to determine if another type of aircraft might suit our needs. I tried very hard to find a reason to not buy the Caravan, but I couldn't come up with any. I knew I wanted the airplane, but at the time borrowing that much money was just a huge step for Julie and me."

At first, Gash determined that he needed to fill five passenger seats in the Model 208 short Caravan in order to make a profit. This resulted in having to refuse some trips because there weren't enough paying passengers. Then he was offered a job to haul cargo for a set hourly rate.

The more a Caravan flies, the less it costs

"All of a sudden, the light bulb went on in my mind," Gash said. "It didn't matter how many seats were filled, all I needed was so much an hour, and the more hours I flew, the less the Caravan cost me. The Caravan proves it categorically that the more you fly the airplane, the less it costs you; absolutely, there's no question about it."

Gash's original Caravan has flown 11,000 hours during 11 years. While the Model 208 Caravan originally was configured for amphibious operation, Seair's maintenance facility at Gold Coast Airport has the capability of converting the airplane from floats to wheeled gear in a matter of hours.

"So our Caravans have got to work, and they just keep going; that was my business model from the start, and it still is today," Gash said. "The Caravan has taken our business to a level we could never have imagined. We appreciate the airplane as a beautiful piece of machinery that we've built a business around."

Such enthusiasm tends to be contagious

In growing Seair from a couple of Cessna single-engine aircraft on floats to a thriving charter and tourism operation with a fleet of Caravans, Gash has inspired more and more "believers" in the Cessna Caravan.

"It seems to me that everyone who flies Caravans believes in the airplane and they actively promote it," Gash said. "I can't think of anyone in this country, or anywhere else that I know of, who flies Caravans who has been dissatisfied."

Gash's enthusiasm for the Caravan has extended far beyond Australia, up north along the Pacific Rim.

"When we went into Indonesia, to Bali, and helped them set up their Caravan flight program, there was a lot of skepticism," Gash said. "I left one of my pilots with them for a year and made believers out of them."

Lady Elliot Island makes it a trio of Sure Things

After building their Seair success story around the Cessna Caravan, Peter and Julie Gash recognized another Sure Thing to build their future on - Lady Elliot Island. In operating Seair Pacific, Gash initially began taking the amphibious Caravan on day flights to the lagoon at Lady Musgrave Island, the next coral island north of Lady Elliot Island at the southern extreme of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Due to the limitations of tide and winds, he could only land his floatplanes there on average 20 days each month. Lady Elliot Island, on the other hand, had an airstrip where he could land 365 days of the year.

"I first saw Lady Elliot Island in 1979, when I came over by boat with some friends from my profession in motorcycle racing," Gash said. "I had never seen such a beautiful place, never seen coral before."

Nearly every day as Gash flew his passengers to Lady Musgrave Island, he pondered the possibilities of operating the resort there.

"I came over to Lady Elliot in 1993 and met the lessee, and discussed various options with him because by then I had quite a lot of airplanes having moved to mainly land-based aircraft," Gash said.

“The lessee had a Nomad, an Australian built twin-engine aircraft, which he was keen to sell and after due diligence I got interested in that airplane, and I saw the pieces of the jigsaw coming together."  Gash subsequently made an arrangement to buy the Nomad on the understanding that he could bring his passengers to Lady Elliot, and in return, fly the lessee's guests to the island in the Nomad.

Use for the Caravan seals the deal

"I also offered to use my Caravan, as he needed more passenger capacity," Gash said. "He loved the Caravan. He could see what a good machine it was, so that was the beginning of it."

The partnership lasted 10 years, during which time the strategy of developing the resort at Lady Elliot became very nearly a stroke of genius. Traditionally, visitors to Australia's Great Barrier Reef had accessed the islands from northern Queensland, nearly a thousand miles north. Meanwhile, Lady Elliot, the only Barrier Reef island with an airstrip, was only an hour-long flight in the Caravan from the populous and prosperous Gold Coast, including Brisbane, Australia's second-largest city.

When the lease on the island came up for renewal in 2005, Gash invited business associates Gold Coast Attorney Michael Kyle and former Australian Surf Life Saving Champion Grant Kenny to be his partners in the Lady Elliot Island venture. The group became the successful leaseholder.

In addition to operating the resort on Lady Elliot Island, Seair employs a total of seven mechanics in its hangar at Gold Coast Airport. At the same location, the company conducts reservations, financial control and purchasing; while also employing four island tour guides fluent in Japanese - which make up nearly 80 percent of the island's clientele - and 12 pilots. Seair's staff totals about 40 on the island, making a total employee base of 70 to 90 people.

Then there's a run for the gold, at five flights a week

In 2006, Seair successfully negotiated a new contract with Craco Mines, a gold mining operation in the interior of Australia. This prompted the need to purchase a new Caravan. Seair runs five trips on four days a week to the mine, a one-hour flight that takes six hours to drive by vehicle. The regular schedule now makes up nearly a third of Seair's business. Since Seair purchased its newest Caravan in late 2006, the airplane has accumulated more than a thousand flight hours.

In the years since Peter and Julie Gash bet nearly everything they owned at the time on the Cessna Caravan, the business of Seair remains a family. Together with their two daughters, 15-year-old Amy and 10-year-old Chloe, the Gashes have converted their original waterfront hangar into a spacious, one-of-a-kind home. The little inlet where Gash once taxied up to the hangar in a Cessna Model 206 floats is now ringed by multi-million-dollar homes.

"Amy has a plan to become a marine biologist," Gash said. "Chloe, on the other hand, sat in my chair in the office one day and announced that she intends to run the business. And she took this a step farther by saying that after she takes over the business, she's going to hire all girls."

And, based on what their parents have proven, the Gash girls' statements can be considered a Sure Thing.

Credits
publication: Caravan News - Cessna Aircraft Company

author: Steve Sebel
date: 1/9/2007

more news ..