FFA Aircraft Maintenance, based in Altenrhein, Switzerland, has been completing aircraft since the 1920s, when the facility was started as a Dornier-affiliated engineering centre. The mighty 12 engined Dornier X flying boat was completely assembled by FFA staff between 1928 and 1931, and classic German fighter aircraft such as the Me109 and various Dornier models were built there during the second world war. The centre became independent from Dornier twenty years ago, and has worked on a range of civil aircraft from the A300 to Hawk jet trainers. \rFFA's most recent task was the completion of a Citation II for Servair, as reported in EBAN last month, in seven weeks. Complete upholstery, new corporate paint work and an avionic retrofit that complies with the latest JAR-OPS requirements were fitted. \rWe spoke to Max Grob, manager of logistics and customer support, about the project. "Seven weeks is an absolutely brilliant time, I don't think there is another maintenance facility at the moment that can match seven weeks and provide a customer with all that work.\r"The Citation II is eight years old," Grob went on. "We de-registered it from South Africa to Switzerland. It was in a good condition. We made a pre-buy inspection, the customer requested that we send one of our engineers to the Citation centre in Bournemouth, UK, for minor inspections, to check certain things that the customer himself could not see or would not think to look at. An engineer always looks at an aircraft in a different way. \r"One problem we had was the paint, because the aircraft operated for a very long time in Africa. The sun is very hot there; to remove the old paint was very hard. We had a lot of people on it," he added.\r"You can't do it in seven weeks without doing some preparation. This has been our biggest job so far."\rFFA Aircraft Maintenance is a JAR-145 approved service centre for Citation series 525, 550, 560 jet aircraft, as well as being able to complete a myriad of turboprop aircraft, including the Beech King Air 90 and 200. The jet market is an area the company says it is keen to develop: "It's much more interesting, financially, to work on a jet than a prop," said Grob. "In the last two years, we have employed a lot of people from the business jet aviation sector. They have a good relationship with the customers, and are helping us to build up a client base. I don't want to say that we are not interested in prop aircraft, it's a good basis, but in future we are trying very hard to improve the jet business. \r"We are improving the business concerning Citations because they are the first step. We are not seeking approval for other aircraft types. I think it is better to have a solid basis, start with Citations, see how the process goes. When you have a hell of a lot of Citations, you can think about getting approval for, lets say, Falcons, or whatever. We will concentrate on one product and make that good, rather than make a bad job on four different types.\r"You know how pilots are, they are sitting somewhere in a lounge and they are saying, `Where do you go for maintenance? What's new about the aircraft you are flying for you're company?' The best reputation you can get is when the pilots say, `We went there, we had a really huge job performed in a very short time.'" \rIn the case of Servair's Citation II, it seems that FFA has achieved its goal. Marianne Helbling, operations manager at Servair, said she was extremely impressed with the entire operation: "We have had a really excellent experience with FFA," she said. "I would recommend them to anybody."