“Operating costs are the ‘monster’ of business aviation, and we’ve developed a strategy to optimize maintenance and reduce costs,” said Edivaldo S. Coelho, president of MAGA Aviation and known as “Engineer Macgyver,” at LABACE 2019.

To understand the nickname of this pilot, mechanic, and aeronautical engineer, all that’s needed is to look at his custom intercity bus, with a customer lounge in the front and a winch capable of removing a turbine engine and transferring it to the steel-floored workroom in the rear of the bus. It’s an authorized Bombardier service center on wheels and a demonstration of the ingenuity of its creator, with thirty years’ experience servicing Learjets.

If an operator brings an aircraft in for scheduled maintenance before it’s needed, hours are lost because the clock immediately starts for the next scheduled event. But if several items need to be done at close intervals, if each is done per the schedule, then it costs a lot of money to fly each time to the workshop and this also puts extra cycles on the aircraft. While the bus was built to handle AOG situations where travel to the workshop isn’t possible, Macgyver has taken to using it to “take service to the client.”

“I go there and do what’s needed,” he told AIN, adding, “The customer can use 100 percent of the hours between service cycles, and I’ll come and perform the service at the client’s hanger.”

The service is that of an old-fashioned doctor who does house calls, using instead of the little black bag, the bus or a smaller black van, which appears discreet parked beside the giant bus at LABACE, although, of course, parked beside the bus anything short of a carnival float would appear discreet.

A number of airports are within several hours of MAGA’s base at Campinas’s Campo dos Amarais Airport, including Congonhas, Campo de Marte, Sorocaba, Jundiaí, Viracopos, Guarulhos, and later this year Catarina.

Macgyver explained that civil aviation agency ANAC also likes the bus idea, for safety reasons. “It keeps customers from pushing the limits” and attempting to perform several scheduled maintenance items at once by stretching the earlier event times. “By coming to the client, I combine safety with convenience, while saving money,” Macgyver explained.

This year’s expanded MAGA display also serves as a base for visiting Bombardier executives, who are at the fair although they chose not to bring any aircraft to this year’s event.