Published in Midwest Flyer – December 2017/January 2018 issue
BLAINE, MINN. – Malibu Aerospace, located at Anoka County-Blaine Airport (KANE) in the Twin Cities, opened its new 70,000 sq. ft. facility on the southwest side of the airport, south of the control tower. Malibu Aerospace provides maintenance and inspection services for all PA46 variants, as well as other engineering, testing, prototyping, training and aircraft management services. The company is constantly striving to make the PA46 as good as it can be, and to make good airplanes great airplanes!
Malibu Aerospace is also an aerospace research and development company that partners with aircraft, avionics and engine manufacturers to develop and deliver highly researched solutions that work in real-world operations.
The company has the capabilities to engineer a solution, integrate a new system, modify an individual aircraft or use its project-management expertise to coordinate full certification programs.
Malibu Aerospace owns and operates its own aircraft as part of its corporate flight department, flown and managed by professional crews.
Owners Chad Menne, Patrick Minge and members of their staff of technicians are themselves Malibu pilots, so they don’t only work on planes…they fly them. That means they understand both the needs of the individual owner-pilot and the stresses of corporate flight operations.
At Malibu Aerospace, research is at the core of everything they do. It starts between the ears of their engineers and progresses into state-of-the-art software systems, then out into the real world for testing.
As an example, Malibu Aerospace engineers examined and analyzed dozens of existing engine mounts, cross-checking the data using two fundamentally different Finite Element Analysis programs to determine the stress factors. During the analysis, they discovered that the stock engine mounts were likely to fail between 2,000 and 2,500 hours, regardless of when they were last overhauled. Malibu Aerospace used this information to design and deliver a new mount that is expected to last the life of the airplane. They believe that the more research they do, the better their solutions will be in maintaining the PA46.
At their core, Malibu Aerospace has significant engineering resources available as needed, such as Uni-Systems, which designs, builds, installs and maintains everything from manufacturing and maintenance systems for the Boeing 777, to retractable stadium roofs. Malibu Aerospace utilizes the robust design, engineering and project-management power of Uni-Systems, as well as its network of FAA Designated Engineering Representatives, to augment their engineering staff as needed, while staying small, agile and efficient.
Malibu Aerospace flys hundreds of hours each year, testing their designs and gathering data. A custom data acquisition system allows their technicians to monitor hundreds of parameters in flight. After each test flight, their engineers have instant access to the data they need to evaluate performance, along with hundreds of hours of historical data to measure improvements under real-world conditions.
Chad Menne is Director of Sales and Engineering and has over 10,000 hours logged, most of which are in the Malibu, Mirage, Meridian and JetPROP. Chad’s wife and company cofounder, Ketti Menne, is Marketing Manager. Other staff members include Brad Ludlow, Doug Hiltz, Dan Degnan, Jaime Olesen, Wilder Morey, Mark Anderson, Tom Leppke-Hennig, Bob Laughery, Bill Perry, Paul Wallace, Jennifer Jara, John Gregg, Nathan Hamment, Jesse Wilken, and Lydell Newby.
Malibu Aerospace held an open house of their new facilities on October 14, 2017. For additional information or an appointment, call 877-662-5428 or email cwmenne@malibuaerospace.com (www.MalibuAerospace.com).
