Ryan on the VLA ramp
Ryan Shepherd is originally from Toronto, living there until he was seven years old. His earliest memories of aviation include eating Wendy’s French fries dipped in a Frosty while watching aircraft at the Toronto Pearson airport (YYZ). Ryan was able to gaze at the Concorde arrive and depart and thought, like most of us, that it was the coolest thing in the world. That was the catalyst that set the wheels in motion for his aviation career. No one in his family, near or distant, was involved in aviation, but he knew when seeing those planes at YYZ that aerospace was his calling.
When Ryan was seven, his dad, funded by the Baptist church network, decided to participate in humanitarian efforts around the world while based in Greece. He was a pastor of a church and felt that he was called to participate in disaster relief and humanitarian efforts overseas. While overseas, they helped to set up refugee centers, coordinating with other countries outside of Europe because of Greece’s status as a gateway country. They assisted refugees from areas in the Middle East and elsewhere. He led response teams to provide relief to the earthquake in Iran, as well as bringing relief teams to help after forest fires in Greece.
Of course, we in the United States are lucky to have our airspace system and a relatively accessible and affordable aviation training environment. But in Greece, the opportunities to fly don’t exist as they do here. However, as a Canadian, part of the British Commonwealth, Ryan had access to a Royal Air Force cadet program that brought young people into aviation at its training facility in Cardiff, Wales, just across the Bristol Channel from Bristol, England. As a cadet, Ryan was able to fly a Grob Tutor, a German-built aerobatic and composite two-seater with a three-blade, constant-speed propeller. A Lycoming IO-360 variant producing 180 horsepower turns the little Grob’s prop, which pulls the plane forward at around 100 knots in cruise.
American Community Schools in Greece operated as primary education, at first primarily to support American kids with parents at the American bases there. Eventually, as the bases closed, the schools were able to accommodate an expanded student population, including American ex-pats, foreign nationals (Samsung has a large presence), lots of embassy kids from different countries, and Greek nationals as well. Ryan appreciates the opportunities he was given to mix and learn about all the different cultures he associated with in school. As he progressed through school in Greece, he began looking at colleges in the States with aviation programs. At 18, he eventually landed at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, renowned for having the largest faith-based aviation program in North America, attending the school’s maintenance management undergraduate degree program. Along the way, Ryan dabbled in pilot and drone operator courses, earning certificates in those.
After graduating from Liberty University, Ryan worked as a mechanic at a local shop called Freedom Aviation. At Freedom, he was introduced to the work he loved, but he realized soon that he wanted to travel and learn more in the real world of aircraft maintenance. He then joined Stevens Aerospace & Defense Systems (Stevens Aviation at the time) in its AOG department, supporting NetJets in the U.S. and to a lesser degree internationally. Through Stevens, Ryan was able to learn a huge amount about a vast array of aircraft makes and models. Now with lots of piston and jet experience, he saw a need for a company on the East Coast that could service both types. Additionally, he wanted to supply the industry with highly qualified and motivated pilots through excellent pilot training.
Flight schools these days have almost become a sort of liability for a lot of MROs (maintenance, repair, and overhaul facilities). Back when I got into aviation, flight schools were often associated with an FBO and MRO shop. Victory Lane Aviation, LLC, (VLA) opened in 2015 in Charlotte, North Carolina, originally under different ownership as a flight school. Ryan bought in as an equity partner at the Charlotte location four years ago when the opportunity to move in and acquire a maintenance hangar at the airport and have a full-fledged flight school presented itself. He had been actively pursuing just this kind of opening to realize his dreams.
Ryan sees the VLA flight school as a recruiting tool to bring in well-rounded aviation enthusiasts. It’s a huge perk to be able to offer a highly qualified and motivated technician the opportunity to acquire his or her flight ratings at a discount. In some cases, Victory Lane Aviation will even pay for that training. They plan to continue the flight school, as it pays for itself by breaking even financially, and brings in employees who might otherwise go to another company. Ryan can track multiple trainees who came to VLA to learn to fly, who then go on to buy a plane, help them with a pre-buy inspection, and then take care of their maintenance needs. The flight school becomes a maintenance service feeder, and a great bonus for employees.
Victory Lane Aviation supports based fleets and transient aircraft, but also partners with charter organizations to provide maintenance and AOG services in Charlotte, Concord, and Wilmington, North Carolina. Recently, VLA has expanded up the East Coast to Bar Harbor, Maine. It is an authorized service center for Textron’s Beechcraft and Cessna piston aircraft warranty work. And recently, it took over for Skytech’s Piper warranty work as an ASC. In addition, VLA is an Icon Aircraft partner. As Epic Aircraft’s only gold star partner, VLA maintains special tooling that only the Epic factory has access to otherwise. Recently, VLA became a TBM ASC as well. On the avionics side, they are a Garmin and Collins authorized dealer and a certified Part 145 shop. When asked if anything else was new for 2025, Ryan responded, “We also became a Beringer Aero Brake Dealer and Hatzell Top Prop Dealer last year.”
If you ask any successful MRO these days, they’ll go on about the challenges of hiring well-qualified and motivated technicians. Maybe there’s a correlation with dropping flight training and losing out on enthusiastic maintenance professionals. I think Ryan has discovered a great way to overcome these modern challenges, and it’s actually an old solution. One that most MROs and FBOs used for decades but have gradually moved away from. I was excited learning about Ryan’s philosophy in this regard. He wanted to fly in the beginning and wanted to continue that endeavor after school. And he wanted to continue and progress as a maintenance professional. Through Victory Lane Aviation, he can accomplish all of his goals and still meet the demands of his customers and his leadership board.
With their son now a seasoned and successful aviation professional, Ryan’s parents continue to assist those in need around the world, but now they do it from the U.S. so that they can be close to their grandkids – Ryan now has three kids of his own. He wondered during our conversation how he might be able to come full circle and help with Greece’s forest fire-fighting effort with Air Tractors on floats, something he wants to accomplish at some point in his life. With all of his current and past successes, I truly think Ryan will make a reality of anything he puts his mind to.
