OVER THE LAST 15 YEARS, AERONAV AVIONICS HAS PUNCHED WELL ABOVE ITS WEIGHT IN PROVIDING BESPOKE AVIONICS SERVICES FROM ITS FACILITY IN PITT MEADOWS, BRITISH COLUMBIA. 124 VERTICAL magazine STORY BY DAYNA FEDY | PHOTOS BY HEATH MOFFATT Working with a small business has an undeniable appeal, with an intimacy of service that is hard for larger companies to match. In Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, Aeronav Avionics has been maintaining and repairing the electronic equipment in aircraft for 15 years, and although it’s a small company, its combination of hard work, experience and passion have made it successful. John Carinha, founder and owner of Aeronav, compares the larger companies offering avionics services to big box stores like Home Depot — versus the mom and pop shop he’s happy to label his company as. “Are you going to get more variety at Home Depot? For sure. But you’re going to get a much more concentrated service with us.” As a private pilot, Carinha was flying and fixing aircraft straight out of school, but decided the technical side was more conducive to a family environment. Nearly two decades ago, while working for Erickson Inc. on contract from Helipro (now StandardAero), Carinha saw an opportunity to branch out into his own business. While at Erickson, he noticed the company had a UV laser wire marker — which was “all the rage at the time,” he said. That particular model, the Tri-Star M-100L, had not yet been introduced in Canada, so when Carinha started Aeronav, it became the first company to bring the M-100L laser wire marker to the Canadian market. Aeronav operated out of Carinha’s garage for its first year, then moved into a facility on a six-year lease at Pitt Meadows Airport, and then, about seven years ago, Carinha building his own facility in Pitt Meadows. The company has just three employees today, with Carinha being the owner as well as one of Aeronav’s technicians.