McGill Aviation - A letter of thanks

McGill Aviation

March 28, 2018 9:08 p.m.

Sean McGill, president of McGill Aviation

On March 31, 2018 McGill Aviation will cease to do business at the Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport. For the last twenty years, we have been honored to provide efficient, friendly, honest, and safe aviation ground support to the users of Fernandina’s airport. While it was our intention to continue our family operated service, others had a different plan. That is the nature of the beast when operating on a lease-hold facility and we are ok with that.

I would like to thank the many people who have touched our lives over the last two decades.

First, everyone who has worked at McGill Aviation. We have had over 240 great members of our team come and go. It has been my privilege to work with every one of them and personally rewarding to see some great aviation careers get started at McGill Aviation.

Many thanks go to the Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 943 for hosting their monthly cookouts and most rewardingly conducting their Young Eagles events. We loved seeing the families and kids running around the building and my personal favorite was getting to take kids on their first airplane rides. I will never forget that experience.

I absolutely have to thank the many groups that have used our facilities over the years. Especially the Humane Society. Being such a dog lover, it was a pure joy to be able to help out such a worthwhile organization. I’m sure the volunteers did not love setting up all of the tables for the great sales they used to have in the hangar with no air conditioning, but we were happy to have everyone hanging around and hopefully raising money for their now awesome facilities.

It was a true honor to be included by Ken and Laurie Byrns in getting the Ben Byrns Runway Rally off the ground. We loved supporting this event honoring Ben and seeing the community get to experience a 5k run on the airport and truly run the runways.

There are so many great memories from all of the groups that have visited the airport over the years, these include Leadership Nassau, the Boy Scouts, the Amelia Island Montessori School just to name a few. Thank you all for including us in your aviation education.

We have to thank all of the aeronautical users that allowed us to provide them service over the years. Thank you for giving us the opportunity for being nationally recognized for helping coordinate the many large use special events such as the Super Bowl, the many owner/pilot associations that have visited, and of course, the Concours d’Elegance. It was our privilege to be the first and last interaction with many of these visitors.

Nathan Coyle, the City’s most recent and best airport manager, needs thanks. He has brought professional airport management that this facility has never had. It has been a pleasure to work with him. I wish him the best in the incredibly difficult job he has.

Finally, I want to thank my father, John, for allowing me the opportunity to be part of such an amazing community. It was under his direction that I have been able to be part of so many great organizations. Thank you to the Amelia Island Fernandina Beach Yulee Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club of Fernandina Beach, the Amelia Island Montessori School, Marathon High, and the Trinity Love Hoblit Foundation that have allowed me to part of your organization and serve in a variety of leadership positions.

Although McGill Aviation will be gone, Tifini and I still plan on being active members of the community with our son and look forward to the next twenty years.

Sincerely,

Sean P. McGill

President, McGill Aviation