Podcast: Buffalo Airways’ McBryan on launching jet freighter ops

Jeff Lee
Hello and welcome to this episode of cargo facts connect, the podcast of cargo facts, the newsletter of record for the air cargo and freighter aircraft industries for over 40 years. I’m Jeff Lee, editor of cargo facts and it’s Friday, the 22nd of September. This week, I caught up with a very busy Mikey McBryan, general manager of Buffalo Airways in northern Canada, as the carrier prepares to launch commercial flights with its first jet freighter.

Jeff Lee
Hey, Mikey, how’s it going? You’re know you’re busy with your first 737 freighter, which is very exciting.

Mikey McBryan
Yeah, well, thanks for having me on. Yeah, I’ve been here in Edmonton now from since it arrived in early August. And I’ve been working with a bunch of different teams, of course, because I’m the team lead on the project. I have to do a little bit of everything. So I’m learning as I’m going on a lot of stuff. But yeah, we’re. Yeah, we were doing really good. So I’m excited to get this airplane going.

Jeff Lee
Yeah. So obviously, it arrived in Canada, in early August, which, I mean, that was already one major milestone. But yeah, since then, you’ve you’ve also been super busy getting various upgrades and things on to the aircraft, haven’t you?

Mikey McBryan
Yeah, for sure. There’s so when it the last time this aircraft operated, like, like on a nonstop basis was about 2016. In Europe, and of course, a little bit different up here in Canada, of course, the new regulations that came out like ATSB, and that kind of stuff. So we’ve, yeah, we’ve installed ADSB, we’ve upgraded the GPS, we got dual GPS, we added a second FMC. We replaced the old CRT weather radar with a new multifunction display that has all the T cast and moveable map and, and routing and all that fun stuff, put Assaf phone and a SAT tracker in it. So it’s got full satellite communications. What else we got, oh, there’s a Canadian specific speed brake warning light that all Boeing’s must have we installed that. And a customized switch to go from the true heading to may or sorry, from magnetic heading, the true heading, which is only applicable for one airport in Canada, which is Rankin inlet, which has other navigation through true because, you know, as you get closer to the magnetic north pole, it really is quite different from the real North Pole. Or, I guess, anyone’s version of which one’s the real one. But yeah, so there’s a specific switch. So we got one switching airplane that allows us to land in one airport. And we were really familiar with those types of airports. But this is the only one that has paved, so 77 doesn’t have the gravel kid on it, because it’s got the big, high bypass engines on it, but I’m sure your listeners know all about that kind of stuff.

Jeff Lee
interesting nonetheless. And you you you were saying that you’re learning as you go, what kinds of what are the major things that you’re learning as you get ready to start flying? And have there been any things that surprised you perhaps?

Mikey McBryan
A lot of subscriptions is actually when you when you look at it, there’s a lot of what I deal with a lot of people like aircraft, like the DC three is not compartmentalized. If you’re a DC three operator, or your DC three pilot, or your DC three mechanic, or DC three, you know, office person, you know everything about that airplane, you know, everything like a good, you know, a, you know, a B, a BS, there’s level of you can chat it up and down. But when it comes to Boeing’s, I find it very different that it’s very compartmentalized. So, you know, an IID young state doesn’t necessarily know about the stuff that mechanic knows the mechanic doesn’t really know anything, really, it shouldn’t say anything, but is less likely to know things about, you know, the operate the flight operations. Of course, there is, you know, there’s quite a bit that goes across, but it is a lot more compartmentalized. And that’s because this, these airplanes are still operating. People have jobs, you know, they have union jobs, and they only allow you to do certain things. So when I have questions when I find an expert, sometimes it’s hard to, you know, to find an expert of everything. And so yeah, that’s the weird thing. So that coming back to the original question, subscriptions, so there’s a subscription for the manuals, there’s a subscription for the NAB data, there’s a subscription for certain STCs like the cargo door. There’s subscriptions for the ground proximity warning system. There’s subscriptions for pretty much everything just like Netflix subscriptions, where there’s nothing to subscribe for in the DC three is nothing. So yeah. So that the two things is it’s hard to find somebody that has a general knowledge of everything. And then there’s the second thing is the sheer amount of subscriptions. And just how crazy expensive Navidad is. nav data, which is only an eight megabyte file that comes out fifth 13 times a year is crazy expensive. And it’s more expensive than almost anything on the airplane. So yeah, eight megabytes went to Katy Perry songs, and a lot of money for that.

Jeff Lee
So, you know, with all the test flights, the maintenance, subscriptions and everything else. And you obviously the time as well, I mean, you spent more than two years at least rain work working on getting it ready. Was it all worth it? I mean, you’re about to butt into

Mikey McBryan
a kind of present over? Yeah, it’s I do it all again, I do it Oh, you like if anybody follows my plane Savior series where we saved the DC three, the DC three was impossible. And sometimes impossible is easier. Because there is no rules. But when it comes to this airplane, All there is is rules. There’s just, I shouldn’t say rules, but guidelines on how to do it. Really. There’s only kind of one way. Yeah, so I would do it all again, I could do it way more efficient. But again, now, I wouldn’t change anything. I had so much fun. And it’s all about at the end. It’s any restoration project or any project anything home rhinos you know, getting a car going getting a plane going, you know, school, any of this stuff. It’s never about the graduation, it’s just about the whole journey. So that’s, I’m still in the midst of it. So I know I can appreciate it. But it’d be boring here once it’s fine for me. So

Jeff Lee
well, you might have to do it all again. Because you, you I mean, you previously hinted at, you know, maybe adding more three hundreds and law, so possibly even the 400. So yeah, have you made any progress on that front?

Mikey McBryan
There’s a lot for sale. Pretty much every day people are sending me messages. But again, that that’s a little bit easier because I think we started from scratch, which means we had no pilot program. We had no maintenance program. We had no operations, no Emil’s, no flight manuals, everything so Everything started from scratch. So when you look at onboarding and importation of the airplane modifications, everything from scratch. So if you look at adding another aircraft 90% of the work is done. So that’s, it’s a little bit easier, you can ask WestJet How hard is that it’s 737. To their, to their fleet. It’s, you know, one phone call in the sign sign a cheque kind of thing. So. So the next airplane be a little bit easier. I know a lot more now about STCs and getting them familiarized and Canada, which ones are a pain, which companies are a pain to deal with? which companies are amazing to deal with? And yeah, so it’s it’s, it’s really good. So.

Jeff Lee
So with all these offers coming in, are you have you identified any that, you know, that you might want to pursue?

Mikey McBryan
Yeah, so there’s sister ships for this airplane. So airplanes that have the same lineage the same, were modified at the same time, basically, the TNT airplanes, a couple of those are available, which share all the STCs which make everything super simple. But right now, we’ll have to see the future isn’t made yet. So will we get this one busy, get some revenue going? And we’ll see what the next one is. There’s a 400 Makes sense does another 300 The chances are, I’ll be buying parts, three hundreds, like going down and grabbing 300 Passenger airplanes, because they’re probably going cheap. And, you know, almost all the parts go across. So yeah, there’s all kinds of z, anybody’s familiar with buffalo airways, but we bought for Convair 580s This year, just for the engines and props for Lockheed Electra. So that’s the kind of stuff we do. So then the next 37 might not be a one for operations, it might be a parts plane. Because if you want to go buy an engine, you want to go down at one 800 and grab an engine, you’d be shocked sometimes at the price. And then you look at an airplane for sale like wow, I can buy that airplane with two engines and go to work right. So yeah, what was your

Jeff Lee
pricing? I mean, have you seen these change? How, I mean, how are you happy with the pricing level on these potential candidates?

Mikey McBryan
Yeah, it’s just like anything. years, there’s the dealer pricing like you want to go buy a used dealer or used car from the dealership right now. You can be kind of shocked. It’s basically new price. And then you find the owners and yeah, so as I’m getting more involved into the world, so you can buy from like a broker. You can buy from lists, at least here So that is that is, you know getting a lease return, and they want to put it on the market, or you can buy it from the company itself. So the three kind of options, and the integral and then it’s that level of cheapness you want to pay the most money, you know you’re in, but if you need it, now, the best service you’re going to get is through a broker where they’re going to take care of you, but you’re going to spend a lot of money. Number two, the binding off the lease return, you’re going to get whatever they have. So they just said, This airplane is coming off, on this date, you can come pick it up, it may or may not be running. And then binding from an operator is normally the most cheapest way to go the most protects the most amount of time because you’re kinda Yeah, you’re kind of, do you have to do everything yourself, you’re kind of left out in the cold. So those three kinds of things. So we we Funny enough, this airplane was basically a mix of all three of those things. So So yeah, it’s, it’s kind of funny. But yeah, it’s a different world, man. This whole Boeing’s jets, and airliners and all that stuff. It’s, um, just guy from a river like it’s took a while to, and still learning, just like, again, I’m just rambling here, but you know, it’s the DC three, the best thing about to DC three, is I’ve known DC through my entire life. I’ve studied it. It’s a hobby of mine. As a work, I work with it, and it’s a hobby. And I get surprised every single day, every single day, the more you look into the DC three, the more you think you know, about DC three, it just, it just shocks you that stuff comes out of nowhere. And yeah, so the point is, is Yeah, it’s like that. But at least there’s more people to talk to three people,

Jeff Lee
right. I’m going to save the DC three, four after for the final bit. But just backing back to the 737. You’re launching your commercial flight to Yellowknife soon. For and that’s for Buffalo air Express. When when exactly do anticipate starting that

Mikey McBryan
we’re days away. Right now. There’s two STCs outstanding for the the avionics upgrades. And once Transport Canada signs off on those which we that’s what the test flight and we managed to delegate and basically a committee of people have all gone through that. So we’re just pushing paper right now. And once that’s gone, we’ve got two pilots, we’re ready to go. The NBL got approved this morning. The import is waiting on those three, three, or those two SCCs as well. But all the 99% of the import paperwork has been done. So yeah, we’re just waiting on that, which is an email. So yeah, we’re away, which was nice.

Jeff Lee
And how your How are the customers for that service? reacting to that?

Mikey McBryan
Well, it’s kind of the because we were doing it right now. So it’s a little bit complicated. So the history of it in back in 1982. My father started buffalo air Express. So this is you know, he started before his 1970 Before air express in 1982. And he his first flight was from a river to Edmonton. hauling cargo, I think was a Navajo have to double check as a travel error or Navajo with one envelope. That was his first revenue. So we’ve been doing it and of course, but with our road system and stuff like that. Now, because of where there’s too much freight for a 53 foot trailer, it’s why we got this airplane. So the moment this airplane goes on, it’s it’s in a time, like the time that the freight gets Yellowknife is getting really better. So there’s customers that are that need their freight before, say 9am This is going to be an instantaneous, you know, you know, better delivery system that we are currently offering right now. And so they’re really wanted, there’s a lot a lot of customers a lot of contracts that we have have delivery times and in climate control to it’s very hard to, to do climate control and when you you when you’re dealing with trucks and airplanes and ramps and that kind of stuff. So it’s Yeah, so there’s a bunch so short answers. Yeah, the pharmaceutical companies for the better climate control and delivery. There’s the automotive industry that wants their parts before nine. There’s the specific career contracts now weren’t there freeze before nine, or I shouldn’t say before eight actually guaranteed? And that kind of stuff. So it’s those customers that are going to greatly see the better service? For sure. And then the backhaul too. But I can go on and on but logistics,

Jeff Lee
you know, I’m sure everybody’s excited. And yeah, this will be a significant step up for everyone involved. Now, the DC three, do you, you’ve previously said that, obviously, the 737 is, the intention is for it to eventually replace those. But now that you’re about to start playing it, do you have a clear timeline for when you might retire the DC threes.

Mikey McBryan
So the DC three will never be retired. I’ve as long as I have any control or any save anything, the DC three will be forever. It will outlive all of us in some capacity. So we’ll you might not be doing what it’s doing right now. But we’ll always have a DC three commercially available when you’re looking at other aircraft, like say that courtesy 46. That airplane honest, being very honest with you outperforms the DC three, and pretty much every single way. That one actually is the most threatened of being retired due to every single reason, you know, it’s hard to find pilots, it’s harder to find parts. The engines are harder to get overhauled right now, as there’s only one shop that’s overhauling engines. You know, that gas finding if gas is an issue? Yeah, pretty much everything on that airplane. It’s one of my most favorite airplanes in the world. But the 737 would be most likely replacing the crew to see 46 My friends over there in Alaska are going through the same issue. They it’s really hard to replace that airplane. That’s why it’s been flying for the last 80 years. Nothing really, really replaces it the cemetery seven is extremely overkill for for what the C 46. Does. But yeah, so these three forever, see 46. The funny thing is, there’s, there’s, I can call on it. There’s a there’s a guy that writes articles, Bob grant, he flew DC threes and co2 to teens for us. In 1986, and aeroclassics. Magazine, there’s the cover, and it was a C 46. And said Canada’s last Commando. And the whole article was talking about, you know how the C 46, you know, has been 40 years and it’s been a great airplane and it’s finally going to retire. And Jeff Schroeder, our ops manager, and C 46 pilot, he’s got 23,000 hours in the C 46 The most is anybody in the entire world. He hasn’t he hadn’t even flown it in 1986. He started in 89. So you can’t really count these airplanes out. So you know, airplanes replace companies. But the airplanes keep on going so it’s possible doesn’t use it. You never know what will happen.

Jeff Lee
Well, no, that’s great. And, again, congrats on this major achievement and the best of luck as you launch these 77 flights. Like you said, it’s it’ll be nice to finally see it. Start playing regularly after all these years. So thank you so much, Mikey for your time.

Mikey McBryan
Well, thanks, guys for pulling me out of the hangar. I have to go back and we were putting in new, those new sock filters for the for the packs. So that’s what we’re doing right now to get it all going. So, so thanks for hanging out.

Jeff Lee
No, no problems. And good luck. Thanks again.

Mikey McBryan
Awesome. Thank you

Jeff Lee
That was Mikey McBryan, general manager of Buffalo Airways. And that’s it for today. For more multimedia coverage like this search cargo facts connect on iTunes and Spotify and visit cargo facts.com. Thank you very much for tuning in, and join us again next time.