There’s a joke in aviation that the way to make $1 million is to start out with $2 million and wait a year. “I can see there’s a lot of wisdom in that,” says Bob Walker, president and owner of Gulfshore Maintenance and Gulfshore Helicopters at Page Field in Fort Myers. “Unfortunately, this is never going to be a huge moneymaker,” he says of his latest endeavor at the airport. Nonetheless, the airport is where he really wants to be (if he’s not in the air), says the doctor-turned-pilot.

It’s his other job as a diagnostic radiologist for Lee Memorial Health System that makes possible Walker’s dream to create his own airport empire. He has made a huge investment in time and money to get his business going at the airport, while maintaining his hours at the hospital. “I basically have two full-time jobs now,” he says. “But the worst day at the airport is still better than the best day in the hospital.”

Walker has had a small helicopter business — primarily for sightseeing and aerial photography, and some instruction — at the airport for eight years, but recently decided to up the ante considerably, adding an aircraft maintenance base and helicopter charter service to his business. He built a 10,000-square-foot hangar and office building on the south side of Page Field and opened for business in September. He now employs two aircraft mechanics, a mechanic’s helper, pilot, and two office staffers.

The first few months have been spent figuring out how to operate most efficiently. Walker is working now on building up the business. “We haven’t been open long enough to know if this is going to be a wise investment or not,” he says.

Walker, who wanted to fly helicopters since he was 10, became a helicopter pilot in 1992. Soon after, he established his first helicopter business, called In Trim (pilot-speak for flying an aircraft with the controls properly configured). He bought a two-seat Robinson R22 helicopter and hired himself out as the pilot. “I flew when I had the time. It got busier and busier.” Finally, he says, “I had to decide whether to stay a small mom-and-pop-type operation or try to expand. It looked to me like it was an expanding business.”

So in 1998, he bought a four-seat R44 and hired a fulltime pilot. The second helicopter and pilot helped him meet the increasing demand for his business. He also changed the name of the business to Gulfshore Helicopters. “It reflects where we are and is a heck of a lot easier to pronounce,” he explains. “People always called us ‘Interim’ before.”

At about this same time, Walker began the long process of becoming a charter operation, obtaining what is called a Part 135 certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration. This allows him to fly passengers on trips out of the immediate area. “So now if you need to be in Orlando for a meeting, we can take you and drop you off,” he explains. In some cases, he adds, the helicopter can land in the parking lot and drop you off right at the door to your meeting. The advantage of helicopters is they are not limited to landing and taking off at airports.

After two years of jumping through all the hoops of the FAA and the federal bureaucracy, says Walker, he received the Part 135 certificate in September. Gulfshore is the first charter helicopter operator in Fort Myers.

“That part of the business I’m trying to grow now,” he says of the charter operation. He has sent out brochures to lawyers, accountants, and other professionals who would use such a service, in hopes of drumming up business.

As he expanded the helicopter business, Walker decided to add a maintenance component as well. Page Field has long had only one aircraft maintenance facility (Switlik Aviation Maintenance). “I saw a real need for aircraft repair,” he says. He turned to his friend Mike Champion, a certified aircraft mechanic and now director of maintenance at Gulfshore, to help him develop the maintenance side. The planning, permitting, and construction took about a year to complete.

“It was very touch and go during the whole planning and permitting stage,” says Walker. He often became frustrated dealing with various government agencies — the Port Authority, Lee County, and the South Florida Water Management District. “Airports have special rules. There were a myriad of regulations and requirements that had to be met,” he explains. “It was a big struggle. Many a night halfway through the process, I said, ‘Forget it.’”

He didn’t forget it, however, and now has 7,400 square feet of hangar space filled with aircraft. He has just hired a second mechanic and is looking for a third. Because of a nationwide shortage of qualified aircraft mechanics, he expects that position to take three to six months to fill. The airlines are snagging mechanics before they are even out of school, offering benefits that Walker, as a small business, simply can’t match. So competition for what few mechanics there are is very tough.

Walker didn’t do any formal market analysis before plunging into the maintenance business. He based his decision on just being around the airport for several years and talking to people. “I knew how many planes were stationed here. I could guess how many would do maintenance here,” he explains, adding, “It is a pretty big gamble.”

Start-up costs have been enormous, notes Walker. Though he won’t reveal exactly how much he has put into it, he points out the cost of various pieces. The special finish on the hangar floor alone was $15,000. Another $15,000 went to a microfiche library of maintenance manuals and parts catalogs for every make of airplane. “It’s a big investment, but it saves the mechanics time,” says Walker. Other costs include $5,000 for software, $1,500 a month for insurance — “It’s incredible how much it costs to keep the place open. Customers don’t have an appreciation for how expensive it is,” says Walker.

Gulfshore charges $50 an hour in labor, on par with the competition, says Walker. One challenge he faces is convincing people they are getting a good value. “Like any service business, if we don’t charge for what we do, we can’t make it.”

His two biggest challenges so far have been paying the mortgage and meeting the payroll, says Walker. He has no investors. “It’s just me and my good credit rating.” Northern Trust holds the mortgage on his facility.

Also joining the mix at Walker’s airport compound is a new flight school, SafeFlight, which leases three offices in his building. “I built more office space than I needed so I could rent to another business. A flight school was perfect,” he says. SafeFlight operates four airplanes and plans to have seven by the end of the year.

Walker has also installed a pilot testing facility in one office in his building, where student pilots can take the written tests required for earning their ratings. “This dovetails nicely with the flight school and the few helicopter students we have,” says Walker. Gulfshore receives a small fee for each student who uses the testing facility, in return for purchasing the three-computer package from the testing service. “We will have to do a lot of tests to recoup the costs on the computers,” he adds.

For the time being, that completes Walker’s growing aviation empire at Page Field, a realm where he feels right at home. “It’s so totally different from medicine,” he says. “It has allowed me to be somewhat creative, despite the stress and not sleeping well at night because I don’t know if this is going to work or not.”

His goal is eventually to leave medicine and concentrate exclusively on making his $1 million in aviation. But big profit does not seem to be his motive. Doing what he enjoys is the key. “If you are doing something you enjoy,” he says, “it’s not really a job.”

Susan Holly is a freelance writer based on Sanibel.