Already a popular general aviation airport in the southeast, Peachtree City's Falcon Field is gearing up to be a maintenance mecca for U.S., foreign and "homemade" smaller aircraft.

Dale Donegan, a recent addition to the Falcon Field staff as maintenance director, comes "home" to the field after having operated his own business at a Griffin airport. He says the new maintenance service has been consistently busy since its opening in mid-October.

Donegan worked at Falcon Field from 1985 to 1991 with Aerospec, the last aircraft maintenance operation located at the field. Since then, he says, the Falcon Field FBO has been able to provide some services for "heavy corporate" plane traffic, but little for smaller planes. Therefore, he adds, "those planes have had to go somewhere else and put money into somebody else's local economy."

Falcon Field has the potential to expand maintenance operations to accommodate all 110 planes based there, Donegan says, and more. Customers already "have called from several different countries," Donegan says. His reputation is well-known in the field, another plus for Falcon Field, said airport manager Jim Savage.

The maintenance facility will handle "most types of general aviation aircraft, and import-export certifications," Donegan says. No matter where an airplane is built or where it's destined for service, he adds, there's a lot of inspection and paperwork that goes with it, in and out of the U.S.

After graduating from airframe and powerplant school in Sacramento in 1984, Donegan has obtained credentials for airframe and powerplant (A&P), Inspection Authorization (IA) and DAR (designated airworthiness representative). The latter is an FAA-authorized position, he says.

He also holds a license to inspect and certify "amateur-built, or what some people call homemade, aircraft." He says people "would be surprised to know how many people in this county are building planes in their garages and workshops."

Donegan describes Falcon Field as "very well set up" for a large maintenance facility that could employ 20-30 people. He and associate Brian Glover are still in the "start-up" mode, he says, but they've worked on five planes in the last two weeks.