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June 2012
EDA Office of Foreign Trade • Riverside County, California • USA
S
cott and Amber Donley
already have a successful business
providing helicopter services to
government agencies that fight fires
and eradicate marijuana farms, but that
is not stopping them from exploring
the opportunities presented by foreign
trade.
The couple runs Heli-Flite Inc., which
contracts with firefighting agencies
to perform water drops and other
services during fire season and drops
drug enforcement agents into remote
areas, where they chop down and
remove countless marijuana plants.
Founded in 1993, the company
also began doing business as Aris
Helicopters in 2005 and retains a
facility in Hollister, just south of
San Jose.
The Donleys’ latest venture is
IHP Worldwide Inc., which they
acquired in 2006 and operate out of a
25,000-square-foot business complex
at Riverside Municipal Airport. The
company – the acronym stands for
International Helicopter Parts – aims
to overhaul helicopter components and
sell parts to clients around the world.
“It’s very competitive, but we have
parts that other companies don’t have,”
Scott Donley said. “The parts we have
are particular to certain aircraft that
are not available from other vendors.”
IHP already has worked for the
Indonesian government overhauling
rotor heads for the Indonesian Air
Force and also has worked with
companies in Canada.
The international experience worked
out well “once we figured out how we
were going to get paid,” Amber Donley
said. “It’s not cut and dried. There was
a lot more to it.”
For example, the company stopped
accepting checks, which required a
four-week waiting period and involved
$200 bank fees, and began working
with wire transfers, which allowed the
company to access the money in a few
hours for only about $30 in fees.
The experience has helped the
Donleys learn how to deal with
customs agents, shippers and other
players in international trade, and
they are constantly looking for new
opportunities. They also spend part
of their time doing market research
to determine what their competition
looks like.
“We’re still pretty new at it, so we have
a lot to learn,” Scott Donley said. “But
we want to expand, which is why we
want to get into the international part
of it. Things are picking up right now.”
Though they now enjoy a diversified
business model – firefighting,
eradication, helicopter parts – the
Donleys got involved with helicopters
through Scott’s service in the U.S.
Marine Corps, where he served as
crew chief on cargo helicopters. He
later worked for a private company in
Corona in the late 1980s before starting
Heli-Flight in 1993. Scott Donley is
company president and Amber Donley
is the chief financial officer.
The company has a four-year contract
with the state and U.S. Forest Service
to do helicopter firefighting and water
and chemical drops all over the state.
The company employs 20 people,
six of whom are pilots, and owns
four helicopters. It also leases one
helicopter.
Fire season typically runs from May
to late October, but it can change from
year to year.
“We can be out there for the whole
entire summer, from fire to fire to fire,
depending on how many fires there are
that season,” Scott Donley said.
The company has worked for seven
years with the federal Department
of Justice to ferry anti-drug agents to
illegal marijuana farms all over the
state. The company drops agents “into
the grove” two at a time so agents can
chop down the plants with machetes
and bundle them up in nets to be flown
out by helicopter for disposal. It’s a
year-round job.
“You definitely find it in places where
you don’t expect it,” said Scott Donley,
who is a pilot himself. “And there can
be a lot of it.”
The Donleys got involved with
international trade after getting a
phone call from an agent representing
the Indonesian government, which
uses the same type of aircraft as they
do. It took about a year to work out all
the arrangements, but the homework
generated about three years of work.
“They knew what we were capable of
doing, so they came to us,” Scott Donley
said. “I want to leave the door open,
which is why I am still pursuing some
of that international market.”
-end-
H e l i - F l i t e
Scott and Amber Donley, owners of Heli-Flite/ARIS Helicopters
Heli-Flite/ARIS Helicopters is an FAA Certified Repair Station that provides top qual-
ity maintenance for Helicopters and Fixed Wing Aircraft. They specialize in Rotorcraft
Maintenance for Bell Helicopters, Schweizer, MD Helicopters and Eurocopter.