When someone asks me why they need a completion manager for their aircraft project, I often respond with a question of my own: would you spend millions on an aircraft and then leave its completion to chance? As Mike Wuebbling, one of our senior advisors, puts it: “People go out and spend literally $80 million on a brand-new aircraft… then when they get to the end of the job and things don’t turn out as they had planned, the regrets are too late.”
After a decade refining our approach at Camber, I’ve learned the value we bring extends far beyond simple project oversight. Independent completion management isn’t just advisable – it’s essential.
Why start at the beginning
Completion management is often seen as outfitting oversight when an aircraft is already at the completion centre. We take a fundamentally different approach, beginning with the vision phase, when clients are crystallising their requirements and exploring possibilities.
This early engagement is critical. Stephan Theis, our Senior Technical Manager, recalls a client who’d already bought a 787 before discovering it wasn’t suitable. The aircraft required flight attendants by regulation – something they specifically didn’t want. Additionally, operating such a sophisticated aircraft required a dedicated maintenance team and an IT department to keep the aircraft operational.
“The client had to walk away from the purchase,” Stephan explains, “but only after months of wasted planning… nobody gave them advice at the beginning regarding the need for flight attendants.”
Camber’s upstream involvement guides designer selection to match the cabin layout with the client’s vision and personality. We brief the designer on technical realities: flex points, pressurisation, regulations – before they start. It saves countless redesign hours and prevents disappointment when dream features won’t work at 40,000 feet.
Being a bridge, not a barrier
Think of completion managers as bridges between designers, completion centres, and owners. We interpret design intent whilst ensuring operational reliability. When designers create beautiful monuments, we’re thinking about discrete equipment access. When they specify a particular finish, we considering how it will perform after five years of flying.
Mike shares a perfect example from his prior experience where operational foresight prevented catastrophe. The passenger oxygen system was in the specification as an airline type, individual, chemical oxygen generators which would supplement passenger O2 for only 30 minutes. The international operational cadence would place this aircraft in regions flying around conflicts and might require more than 30 minutes of flight to avoid an emergency landing in a conflict region. This was not a regulatory issue but was a serious operational concern, especially considering we were frequently flying between the Middle East and Eurasia. The Regulators insisted we had to have an airline type passenger chemical oxygen generator system, and the completions center did not want to challenge them. As Mike explains: “If you are flying around a conflict region and lose pressurization near Iranian airspace, you would not want to land there with a US-registered aircraft and USA Executives and Flight Crew citizens. You potentially need several hours of oxygen to reach a safer destination, not 30 minutes.”
“We had to develop a specification and justification that would support installation of a gaseous system to the Regulators to ensure operational effectiveness for the safety of our passengers. Without this foresight and detailed review of the completion specifications, the 30-minute limitation could have been overlooked – with a catastrophic impact to our operations in that region of the world.”
Or consider something seemingly simple: a galley. For a recent client, an induction cooking system was installed because authentic Asian cuisine needs high-temperature cooking. We required the completion centre to develop ventilation creating lower air pressure in the galley to prevent cooking smells from entering the cabin. It’s a small detail that might be seen as “overthinking” – but our client and their passengers did not want to be surrounded by cooking smells. These invisible details make the difference between a good cabin and an exceptional one.
Collaboration and foresight
Completion centres benefit from our involvement as much as clients do. We provide guidance and solutions to complex design issues while anticipating what’s needed for the next stage.
As Mike explains: “If you involve a completion manager early, there’s time to identify challenges and find solutions, including long-lead time materials.” He’s seen completion centres wait until the aircraft arrives to order materials. He says: “I’ve experienced an airplane sitting there for four months and the veneer still hadn’t arrived.”
Our experience prevents costly mistakes for everyone involved. Recently, Stephan caught ceiling panel issues during fabrication where foam density created unwanted curvatures around lighting cut-outs. “It looked unacceptable. We investigated and found a solution on the first panel,” he says, “avoiding the removal and replacement of ultra-leather on 25 ceiling panels.”
The alternative would have been weeks of costly rework, sliding schedules and an owner wondering why their “simple” refresh has become a nightmare.
There’s a perception that completion managers exist to identify defects and potentially create conflict, but that’s not our approach. We work collaboratively from day one, catching issues at the design or fabrication stage, and finding solutions with the outfitter rather than waiting until installation.
This collaborative approach benefits everyone. Completion centres avoid costly reworks. Clients get their aircraft on time and on budget. And we all share the satisfaction of delivering something exceptional.
The power of specificity
One of Camber’s core strengths is our ability to write comprehensive specifications. I’ve seen specification documents that are only a few pages long whereas ours run to hundreds. We do this because ambiguity is the enemy of quality and budget control.
When we specify no orange peel effect on visible painted surfaces, we define exactly which surfaces those are. When specifying 6mm gaps with a +/- 1mm tolerance between cabinet doors, we ensure they’re consistent across the entire installation, not 5mm at one end and 7mm at the other. Likewise with system requirements: the greater the detail, the easier it is for outfitters to meet all expectations. This level of detail is what allows completion centres to provide accurate quotes and timelines so we can deliver exactly what the client expects.
Details that define excellence
Small considerations can have the big impacts. Mike notes: “When seats are being upholstered… a single stitch along the chair rail may wear through. But if you take the stitch and you position it to the side, outside the wear zone, the problem disappears. “
Countertops are another example. As Mike explains: “Granite countertops in aircraft crack. Always. The pressure changes and fuselage flex guarantee it.” Unless, of course, you anticipate the issue and know the solution. “We found a company that laser cuts the granite countertop into 3000 slices, then reglues those pieces back together so perfectly that you’ll never see the cuts. But this allows each of those blocks to move with the expansion and contraction, thereby preventing cracking.”
Situations like this explain why a completion manager must always think ahead.
As we all know, technology evolves rapidly. We’ve gone from USB-A to USB-C in a few short years and DVD players that seemed cutting-edge a decade ago are now antiquated. We anticipate this and specify systems that can be upgraded without tearing the entire interior apart.
We also consider maintenance access. Mike notes: “Maintenance windows are short – sometimes you’ll have 30 minutes to access, replace the part, reprogram it and close it up.” If a battery pack needs annual servicing, we’ll make sure it’s discreetly accessible – instead of putting it behind the principal’s bed, turning a 20-minute maintenance job into an expensive three-day endeavour requiring removal of the bedroom.
The Advantage of Independence
Our independence is crucial. We’re not beholden to any manufacturer, designer, or completion centre. We don’t receive commissions or kickbacks. Our loyalty lies entirely with our clients, which means our recommendations are based solely on what’s best for their needs, timeline, and budget.
As Stephan observes: “Nobody questions the need to hire a lawyer when buying an aircraft, so why would you not retain a professional completion manager to protect your interests during the complex completion process?”
Beyond completion management
And this is why you need a completion manager. Although, if I’m honest, I sometimes struggle with the term “completion manager” as it hugely understates what we actually do. Perhaps “completion partner” better captures someone who shares your vision and takes responsibility for making it reality.
As Mike describes it, you need “somebody that can not only manage the maintenance and technical aspect of it but can read a legal contract or mandatory regulations and understand what is required.” We need to master disciplines from contracts to deep technical knowledge, to quality control to relationship management.
Or perhaps Stephan puts it best when he compares the role to NASA’s astronaut requirements: “Astronauts need to be all-rounders because they’ll be facing challenges that they never realised before, so they have to be good in many, many things and have the experience to anticipate problems before they happen.”
From my perspective, the best way to understand our value is through results: when a pre-owned aircraft can be transformed in under 12 months versus three years for a new build. Or when problems are caught at the fabrication stage rather than after installation. And particularly, when an aircraft maintains its value and functionality years into service because someone thought about the details upfront.
The complexity of modern aircraft completions demands expertise that spans design, engineering, regulation, and operations. It requires someone who can see both the forest and the trees, who can balance perfection with pragmatism, and who understands that at 40,000 feet, there’s no room for error.
At Camber, we’ve learned that every detail matters: from tiny quality-of-life improvements through to the specification document that ensures everyone knows exactly what success looks like. It goes far beyond managing completions. We protect investments, safeguard visions, and ensure that years from now, when you’re cruising at altitude, every detail still works exactly as it should.
And ultimately, that’s what separates a completion manager from a true completion partner: the difference between getting what you paid for and getting what you dreamed of.