News

Springdale charter pilot enjoys flying, working for himself

Published: April 19, 2008   

By Leslie O'Malley
Little Rock Correspondent

Sandra Ware

Art Ray (right), president of Crown Aviation in Springdale, talks March 14 with Wil Yarbrough of Siloam Springs about an airplane he has for sale.

Sandra Ware

Art Ray (right), president of Crown Aviation in Springdale, talks March 14 with Wil Yarbrough of Siloam Springs about an airplane he has for sale.

Art Ray, president of Crown Aviation in Springdale, has a job many would envy -- he's his own boss, and he gets to fly airplanes.

"I run into people everyday who say they'd love to learn to fly," he said in a phone interview with Arkansas Catholic.

Ray, a parishioner at St. Raphael Church in Springdale, operates a charter plane service out of the Springdale Municipal Airport. Crown Air Charter provides flights on three planes -- a single-engine Cessna and Piper Saratoga, which can carry four passengers, and a twin-engine Piper Chieftain, which can carry six passengers.

In a typical week, the service flies three or four charters, usually regional flights for business. For example, right now he has a client with business in Waco, Texas, so he flies there once a week.

The flight Ray makes most frequently is from northwest Arkansas to Little Rock, and on those trips, he usually has one passenger, such as an attorney with business at the state Capitol. He also made that trip several times for Msgr. Scott Friend, when he needed to get to Little Rock for church business. At the time, the priest was pastor of the Springdale parish. Now he serves as vocations director for the Diocese of Little Rock.

Usually Ray has two or three passengers on charters, but he has carried groups as large as four or five.

On one of his longest charters, which took him from Omaha, Neb., to Jacksonville, Fla., his passenger was not even human.

"I have a client who just has me fly documents," Ray said.

The appeal of this service is the speed and the sense of security it provides, he added.

"I deliver them (the documents) in person -- I know where they are at all times," he said. "If you take them to FedEx and drop them in the mailbox, they're not secure."

"I can get it there today. Sometimes it's worth the extra money to get it there today," he said.

The primary focus of his service is business travel for customers under time constraints. He rarely flies charters for vacations.

"Most generally, people traveling for pleasure are not under time constraints," he said.

Another service he can provide is flying people into small towns where the nearest commercial airport is hours away.

"I fly into Nebraska a lot for that reason," he said. "Lots of times you can't do that in one day (with the connections and driving), but I can do that in two hours. There are lots of smaller airports all over the country."

"For most of my customers, the airlines are just not much of an option," he said.

Occasionally, he carries Razorback fans out of state for sporting events. He did that in 1994 for the Final Four basketball games in Charlotte, N.C., and the Arkansas-Ole Miss football game in Oxford, Miss., last fall.

Crown Air Charter does employ one other pilot, Andrew Weatherall, who has been flying for Ray for more than a year. Ray likes to fly at least once a week, but because he and Weatherall are the only employees, he also does all the accounting and customer service. He got his start in aviation as an aircraft mechanic, so he does a lot of the required maintenance on his planes, too.

"We're just like the airlines," Ray said. "We have to comply with the same regulations."

Ray, 46, inherited his interest in flying from his father, who was a Pan Am pilot. In 1980, Ray became certified as an airplane mechanic and worked on planes for several years. Then he decided he was ready to learn to fly.

"I went to a small airport, rented an airplane and hired an instructor," he said.

After he earned his private pilot's license in 1984, he bought his first plane. He started his company in 1989.

"My dad told me to find something you really like to do and try to make a living at it. That's what I did," he said.

After growing up in Kansas, Ray moved to Springdale in 1985. He has been married to his wife Leslie for 23 years, and they have two daughters, ages 22 and 12, and a son, age 19. He would like to pass on the interest in aviation to them, but so far he hasn't.

"None of them are interested yet -- I've tried," Ray said.

"I almost had my oldest one talked into it (learning to fly) last year," he said. "She wanted to do it for a few weeks, then she changed her mind."

While his business has remained steady, Ray said it's not always easy.

"The airlines lowered their prices during deregulation (in the 1980s) -- charters have been steadily declining since then," he said.

Ray cites the example of a recent trip he and some friends made to Reno, Nev. They were able to fly on a commercial flight for $300 per person.

"The cheapest airplane I have would cost $2,000 to make that flight," he said.

Twenty percent of that expense is fuel. So far, Ray has been able to pass the increased cost of fuel on to his customers, but it is harder when fuel prices increase more rapidly.

"After Hurricane Katrina, fuel went up 25-30 percent in a short time. I felt a decrease in the number of flights because I had to raise the price. It has never gotten back to the number of flights before August 2005," he said.

Ray said he realizes he could make more working for someone else, but he doesn't do it solely for the money.

"I enjoy what I do," he said. "I think I'd be miserable if I had to work for someone else."