(Dale Neubauer in the new HeliLadder Shop | Photo courtesy of HeliLadder)
HeliLadder was founded in 2014 by Dale and Susie Neubauer in Bend. Initially operating out of their garage, Dale used his 30 years of experience maintaining a multitude of aircraft to create the world’s first modular and portable workstand. Most notably, Dale spent 18 years working with St. Charles, doing maintenance on their fleet of helicopters.
A ladder might just seem like a ladder, but as a part of helicopter maintenance, it is a crucial factor in mission availability; traditional ladders are cumbersome, and poorly suited to provide access to certain parts of a helicopter, like the upper airframe and rotor system. This slows down maintenance, keeping helicopters from being available for life-saving missions.
Not only that, but traditional ladders, being ill-suited for the angles of the job, are simply more dangerous for aircraft technicians. Dale had seen and dealt with this problem first-hand for more than 30 years. He knew there had to be a better way.
“My career in aviation sent me down this path,” he said. “I wanted to ensure that the next generation of aircraft technicians won’t face the safety concerns and inefficiencies of traditional ladders that I experienced.”
Today, Heliladder has quickly become a high industry standard, from hospitals to branches of the U.S. military. Aside from helicopters, the Heliladder product line can actually support maintenance of a vast array of passenger planes, fighter jets and military drones. Since their inception, the product line has expanded with ladders and platforms of varying sizes to accommodate this wider market.
An added benefit to Heliladder is the fact that their production happens here in Central Oregon. While Heliladder doesn’t manufacture their own parts, they do utilize an array of local and family-owned manufacturers to do so, including CLS, ISCO, Commercial Powder Coating, Clark Industries, Victory Precision, Dana Signs and Absolute Signs.
“We’re supporting family businesses by farming out that manufacturing to local shops here in Bend and Redmond,” Dale said. “The local community has supported us with loans, classes at COCC, and so much more in the form of loyalty. We’ve been approached by larger, out of state manufacturers, and we’ve adamantly opposed using them, because we want to support the Bend manufacturing community.”
Continuing, Dale said, “My wife and I have lived here since the 1980s. This place is our home. There are many family-owned manufacturers that took a risk working with us at the beginning, but they wanted to support another family and see us succeed. They put in more time than they charged us in some cases, and invested in us more than we could ask for. We are deeply loyal to them, and we will never discount the value of supporting local families.”
