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Part Three: Helicopter Technologies And Georges Van Nevel’s Future Plans

(This is the third of a three part NorthEscambia.com exclusive series. To read part one from Monday, click here. To read part two from Tuesday, click here.)

Years of battles with the Federal Aviation Administration have taken their toll on Georges Van Nevel with Helicopter Technologies in Century. Van Nevel is tired and perhaps a bit broken by the whole situation, ranging from multiple fine tooth comb inspections to a full blown federal raid with weapons drawn. That, coupled with a fatal crash late last year of a FH1100 that had just left his Century factory, has left him with many sleepless nights. But he has no intent of giving up, nor does he have any intent of leaving Century behind.

It’s not the kind of thing you smile about in the morning and move forward like nothing every happened. His customers are worldwide, far beyond the local news stories. But the helicopter industry knew of the federal raid last month. In fact, articles about the raid here on NorthEscambia.com were picked up and linked to by powerful industry sites and large publications like Rotor & Hub magazine, Vertical Reference Helicopter Forums and the Rotohub website in Europe.

So what does Van Nevel do next?

“Small businesses can’t afford high price lawyers to fight the FAA,” he told NorthEscambia.com in an exclusive interview in his office. “It’s been very difficult, but there has been a lot of support from our customers.”

“I will sue the FAA when I find an attorney; I need to be compensated for damages to my company and the threats I’ve faced,” he said. “I want to go on ‘20/20′ and ‘60 Minutes’ and let the world know what the FAA did to me.”

It’s important to mention again at this point that after years of inspections and allegations by the FAA that Van Nevel has never been charged with any crime, nor have they ever found anything significantly wrong with his operation. The exact cause of the fatal FH1100 crash last year in Lousiana has not been determined, and National Transportation Safety Board documents NorthEscambia.com has examined do not imply a fault with the helicopter.

“I’ve invited them (the FAA) to inspect me many times,” he said. “They have never found anything.”

“The told me during the raid that I was concealing something and they were going to find it. They even searched up there,” he said, pointing to an area physically above the office area of the building.

“I told them right off that I was concealing something,” he said with a laugh, pointing to a huge row of large filing cabinets, clearly labeled with alphabetized labels. “I told them it was all carefully alphabetically concealed right there; things filed away under the letter where they are suppose to be.”

“I was born in Europe,” he told NorthEscambia.com. “That’s a crime here. The Birmingham office of the FAA is an office of good old southern boys, and I’m not one of them.”

Van Nevel recently had 12 employees and always had plans to grow in Century. Now his number of employees stands at two. He’s one of those two.

The building Van Nevel occupies is owned by the Town of Century. His monthly payment for use of the building is $3,257.61. He was reported to be eight payments behind by Town Clerk Dorothy Sims at a January council meeting. That would put him $26,060.88 behind.

“The payment to the city. That one bothers me,” Van Nevel said. “I will recover and make that right. I am not leaving Century.”

“How far are we going to let him get behind before we do something,” council member Henry Hawkins asked at the January town council meeting. “We are going to have to put a stop to it somewhere…I think he needs to go.”

“There a lot of politics in this town,” Van Nevel said. “No matter who it is, no matter how good the idea, somebody in this town is going to fight it. But we have an excellent mayor now. He’ s a good man, with principals. He’s an honest man.”

Van Nevel knows that he faces a long battle to recover his business. But he says he’s ready for the fight.

He took NorthEscambia.com on a complete tour of his facility. We left his office through a central conference room that looked as if a remodel had yet to be completed. We proceeded through an engineering area, full of file cabinets after file cabinets. If the FAA were to have seized all of the records in the filing cabinets, it would appear that it would have taken a semi truck to remove them.

We see the Van Nevel Helicopters Academy classroom. It sits empty except for a few pieces of furniture and an old copy paper box full of books on a folding table.

We headed toward the factory. It was dark. Empty and quiet. His employee is off on Fridays, the day we visited last week. He stopped at a breaker panel and turned on the lights. As we entered the factory, there was the distinct smell of fuel and oil, much like an old garage.

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There’s a row of FH1100 helicopters neatly lined up. Some look like they could fly away at a moment’s notice. Other looks as if they are just skeletons, bare bones. He gives a little history of each as we move down the line. Some, he says, have an improved aerodynamic front nose area that he says looks much more modern.

He stops at one with tail number N556F. Ths bird was ready to leave the nest…it is the one he says he had sold until the FAA contacted the purchasers and told them they would not certify it. He looks over it for a moment, and slides the cover back off the shiny refurbished engine. It’s much like looking under the hood of a new car…it looks ready to go.

We continue our factory tour. Just past a large fuel truck, we see a paint booth and a room full of a machine with a series of rollers that he says is for for making rotors.

The signs on the doors back at the front of the building warns that photography is strictly prohibited in the building. But he encourages NorthEscambia.com to photograph whatever we would like in order to share with our readers.

On the way out of the factory, we pause so he can pose for photographs in front of his copters.

Back in the lobby, he admits that he’s physically tired in the weeks after the raid. He takes us back to the conference room. On a small table in the corner is his next dream. A small model of a military helicopter that he says would save the government a lot of money, being cheap and easy to produce. It’s an impressive looking model, ominous in appearance like an Apache helicopter.

For a complete exclusive NorthEscambia.com photo gallery tour of Van Nevel’s Helicopter Technologies, click here.

As we leave, he promises to move forward.

“I’ll never give up; I don’t know how.”