Doug Dickey, owner of Aero Detail based at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE), is always about perfecting his craft, whether he’s at work bringing out the shine in an aircraft or nailing a skydiving or snowboarding landing. He knows margins for error can be slim -- in business and in sports. The numbers he’s surpassed as a businessman and athlete are impressive.

“My brother and I were counting up the other day and realized I’ve invoiced about 20,000 aircraft detailing jobs,” says Dickey, who maintains an office and extensive cleaning equipment at Hangar 39 at FXE. “Some of those are for multiple jobs, so that’s a lot of completed jobs over the past 30 years.”

Dickey’s company has been providing high-quality professional cleaning and detailing services to corporate and individual aircraft operators and owners, flight departments, fractional ownership companies, maintenance facilities, flight departments and Fixed Base Operators since 1988. He works at seven airports in South Florida, is a preferred partner for Premier Aircraft along with Banyan and has several government agencies as customers.

“I do about 40 jobs a week, or 4 to 5 a day depending on the complexity and location of the work,” he says. “Most of those take several hours but one large jet could take an entire day to complete.”

Originally from California, Dickey got into aircraft detail work by helping his father at the Burbank, Calif., airport. “I still remember his first customer – Cy Chermak who was a producer on the Chips TV show. He owned a Cessna 402.”

Aero Detail performs aircraft washing, complete interior detailing and customized deep cleaning and Britework polishing. Interior detailing includes headliners and sideliners, carpet deep cleaning, and leather cleaning except re-dye work. A complete list of services is available on his website here. Aero Detail also offers annual plans for discounted cleaning services.

“We provide customized solutions to meet a customer’s specific requirements,” says Dickey. “A lot of times I will get a call that just says we need an exterior wash. After calling them back and explaining the differences in services and types of cleaning, we often end up doing a unique detail on the aircraft. However large or small the job, my goal is to meet or exceed expectations.”

When he is not working on planes, Dickey is either jumping out of them or climbing a mountain or snowboarding down one. He has 2,242 skydiving jumps under his belt, has climbed seven of the top 50 peaks in the world including Mt. Rainer in Washington, the Tetons and Forbidden Peak in the Cascades. Favorite snowboarding trips were to Chile, Japan and Alaska. “I like to think of it as my work sponsors my adventures!” he laughs.

Dickey has been a pilot for eight years and has 1,000 hours flying. He purchased a Mooney Ovation II a few years ago from Fred Ahles, President of Premier Aircraft. He also brings his Mooney to Premier for service. “It’s with you guys for an annual right now.”

For skydiving, Dickey works with Skydive Sebastian in Sebastian, Fla., organizing intermediate and advanced angle and dynamic free-flying jumps for the drop zone. He maintains a YouTube channel with videos of his jumps and other travels here.

As with work, he says chasing perfection has gotten easier over the years. “All my hard landings were when I was starting,” he says, “Now I land at around 50 miles per hour and my chute is a much smaller Valkyrie 90-foot canopy. You just get better over time.”

Original article https://mailchi.mp/b3592a98d160/pireps-november-2019?e=deaca06b1c