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the associated taxes are paid and then he can
generate some money he might be able to
put in his pocket. It’s a lot different down
here.”
A seed seller takes flight
before going into the airplane
manufacturing and service business, krotje
was a district manager for a seed company
in neenah, wisconsin. his job was selling
corn, soybean and alfalfa seed to farmers and
setting up dealerships all over the eastern
part of the state.
krotje’s interest in airplanes was piqued
in the 1980s when he started going to the
annual osh kosh Air show, the largest air
show in the u.s. “I got going to that for a
few years,” krotje said. “I think the first time
we went my son was 3. by the time he was
8 or 9 we had sat in every possible plane we Peter Krotje works on the Jabiru four-cylinder engine that
could build. At one point there was enough money will power the Italian kit plane he’s building for himself.
in the checkbook and I bought the tail kit for an rv currently, the jabiru planes sold here are manufactured in
vans.” (the vans rv is a kit aircraft.) Queensland, Australia (the company’s home) and shipped, fully
krotje started building the vans but family obligations
interfered with his finances and he was forced to sell the plane built, to the u.s. in a container. the only assembly done to the
planes in the u.s. is installation of instruments. “what they use
before it was completed. he next bought a kolb ultralight. he for instruments in Australia or south Africa” are not as up to date
and his son built the aircraft in four months and flew it for “a as what’s commonly used in the u.s., krotje explained. “our
couple of hundred hours,” krotje said. guys want the latest and greatest instruments.”
krotje’s entry into the airplane business, he explains, was “a

hobby that just got completely out of hand.” Ruling him out

Another rule change, enacted last year, has further cut
Ups and downs in the aircraft business the market for light, sport aircraft, like the jabiru. prior to the
As he got more into the aircraft business, krotje, got involved
with jabiru Aircraft, an Australian manufacturer. jabiru, krotje rule change, pilots who couldn’t qualify for an fAA medical
certificate, could only fly planes like the
said, decided to not export fully built jabiru (light, sport aircraft) and kit planes
planes to the u.s. because “they were (called experimental aircraft). last year,
afraid of our legal system. they didn’t ‘With this airplane I can fly the fAA rule change allowed anyone who
want to get sued out of existence – too had had a medical certificate in the last 10
many lawyers,” he said. “I convinced up toward Bell Buckle and years to fly without a medical certificate.
them I would stick my neck out and be now these pilots can fly planes with twin
the manufacturer of record.” chase the train up the tracks.’ engines that carry up to six passengers.
krotje’s company, jabiru north — Peter Krotje
“the demand for $100,000 light,
America llc has had its boom years and sport airplanes really dropped off,” krotje
droughts. said, “when the guys could keep flying
the company’s highest flying was for
three years, from 2006 -2008, when they were building 40 planes their $40,000 cessna even though it was 50 or 60 years old.
they didn’t have to lay out another $100,000 over they could
a year in shelbyville. In those years, krotje employed 20. sell their cessna for.”
“then came the obama recession of 2008 and airplane

market, like everything else, went into the toilet,” he said. Time to take things a little easier
unfortunately we laid off the whole crew and went from selling when he sat down for an interview at the end of february,
40 airplanes a year to selling four.” krotje said his business was in “the midst of reorganization. right
In 2012, as the economy was just beginning to fully recover,
the federal Aviation Administration stepped in and stepped again now, it’s just myself and cindy, my parts gal.” his son, who had
been building aircraft with him since he was 11 years old, had
on krotje’s business. he had been assembling jabiru planes in decided he didn’t want to carry on the business.
shelbyville but under the new rules he was prohibited from that. “he’d been building airplanes along side me since he was 11.
“that didn’t fly with the fAA anymore. we went from building If the business had more potential he might have stayed. but,
airplanes here from nearly scratch to importing fully built aircraft in the last 20 years if he’d had a job paying $20 an hour he’d
airplanes from jabiru’s south Africa facility.”
Continued on pg. 28

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