DLD Management

DLD Management
Our First Year
In early 2013, with Corporate Jet Partners dissolving, David Davidson was approached
with the idea of starting his own management company, continuing the vision that Billy Hulse
had some 23 years prior. Drawing upon his years of experience at CJP, David made the decision
to create his own company, DLD Management. Realizing he would have two aircraft and four
Partners to manage from day one, David turned to a couple familiar faces from CJP, Thomas
Trebus and Josh Fahning. Additionally David found a new Captain, Lee Cromwell. Lee had been
in the Atlanta area for many years, flying Hawkers and King Airs based at Peachtree-Dekalb
(PDK) airport in North Atlanta. They accepted David’s offer for employment and on April 1st,
2013 with two Beechjets, four Partners, and four employees, DLD Management was officially
open for business. With the inevitability of any new business having a few kinks to be worked
out, it was decided to use a plan of operation similar to that previously used at CJP. This
allowed us to hit the ground running, making the transition for our Partners as seamless as
possible.
Soon after starting, we realized that an additional First Officer was needed to continue
providing our Partners with the highest level of service possible. After an extensive search, it
was decided to hire Nick Bruhnke. Nick came to us from the University of North Dakota where
he was a Lead Flight Instructor, teaching international contract and undergraduate students in
addition to supervising a group of flight instructors.
In its first year of existence, DLD Management posted some pretty impressive numbers.
Between the two Beechjets, we flew a total of 507.4 hours and covered 201,383 miles, that’s
enough to fly around the world more than 8 times! Those miles were spread across 5 different
countries, 30 different states, and 96 different cities.
November was by far our busiest month with our aircraft flying a total of just under 61
hours. Not surprisingly our busiest week occurred within November as well. During the week
of Sunday, November 17th to Saturday, November 23rd we flew 27.6 hours and 11,433 miles.
That’s more than 45% of the hours for the entire month accrued within just one week! During
that week one aircraft returned from Louisiana, then continued to Connecticut, Tennessee and
Maryland while our other aircraft returned from Minnesota, then left Georgia for Florida, and
continued on to South Carolina, Texas, Arizona, California and later capped the week off by
making a quick hop down to Jamaica and back. Whew, what a week! As I’m sure you’ve
guessed, our busiest day occurred within that same week, November 20th to be exact. One
aircraft was returning home from Connecticut while the other was heading West from South
Carolina toward Arizona. On that day alone, we spent 7.9 hours in the sky.
March 13th, 2014 was an unexpectedly eventful day for DLD Management. While taking
off from Rochester, NY, Captain Lee Cromwell and First Officer Nick Bruhnke ingested a bird
into the right engine of N193BJ. The subsequent failure of that engine was calmly handled with
the highest level of skill, teamwork and professionalism that we at DLD Management train for.
Safety is always our number one priority and this situation was no different. With the failure of
one engine, our crew was able to bring the plane back around for an otherwise uneventful
landing back at Rochester.
Looking forward to the rest of 2014, we are excited by what the future holds. The
addition of two new Partners and an additional Beechjet should considerably increase our
versatility and reliability. Billy’s vision of safety first, service with a smile, and a can-do attitude
served CJP well, and we at DLD Management, look forward to continuing that legacy for many
years to come.

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