James P Reeves

Known as “Jim” to his friends, we first met Jim at the 2019 Sequim Valley Airport Air Affaire, where he was on the field directing and parking the arriving planes. He showed up at our September EAA Gathering and met several of the members. After hearing about his drone business, (Precision Drone Solutions) our Program Director, Deb Cox, invited him to be our guest speaker and arranged for him to give a presentation at our November meeting.

Jim shared with us the following: He started flying at age 13, soloed at 14, got his private pilots’s license at 17, instrument rating at 18, commercial rating at 19, CFI and CFII at 19, Multi at 19, ATP at 23, Type-rated in the AVR-146 (RJ-85) and B747-200/300 .

He started flying commercially at 19 while attending Purdue University from 1995-1999. He graduated from Purdue University’s Aeronautical Science program in 1999. He flew commercially (both CFI/MEI and for the airlines) until 2006 when he lost his ability to hold an FAA medical. He earned a Masters in Aeronautical Operations and an MBA from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University while flying for the airlines. He used those two Masters Degrees to pivot into management after losing his medical in 2006.

He was a Maintenance Planning Manager at an airline (Cargo 360-now Southern Air) until the company was closed because of the recession in 2008. He ended up at Boeing from 2010-2015 as a Maintenance Planning Specialist for the 747-LCF (Large Cargo Freighter) program, supporting the 787 program, and then as a Supply Chain Logistics Operations Specialist for the same program.

In 2015 he decided to become a Real Estate Broker, working for Re/Max and then Redfin, until he brought his family to Sequim in 2018. He opened his business, Precision Drone Solutions (drone services provider) at that time.