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I visited the “secret” parade of pistons yesterday at Addison Airport (ADS).  It was a nice little event with some nice planes from most several manufacturers.  Cessna , Beechcraft, Diamond, Mooney, Indus, Remo, Liberty and more all had planes and displays there.  I got to sit in and discuss them with there respect sales reps as well as meet some nice vendors and dealers.

This event is sponsored by Flying Magazine, I went last year and one would think they would put you on the mailing list, but some how I just stumbled on the info about it while surfing the web.  It is a nice event that could or would be much bigger if they publicized it a little bit.  However, because of its small size it allows you time to ‘kick the tires’ of planes and have a very personalized experience with vendors.

The highlight of the show for me was the Cessna (formerly Columbia) 400 aircraft and the G1000 panels. 

I was very impressed with the plane, the comfort and the feeling that I was sitting in a high quality car of today vs the ’70’s feel you are used to when you get in a typical GA aircraft.  The fit and finish as well as ergonomics of the plane were impressive.  The performance of the plane is amazing, however to pack it full of fuel and get ready to go will ZAP on your useful load down to 400 lbs, so when the wife and kids, not to mention the baggage are ready to go with you there will be some trade offs. 

As Pia Bergqvist, the sale rep from Cessna pointed out though, the bladder of the other 3 occupants probably wouldn’t last for the 5 hours of endurance even if you could fully load it with fuel anyway.  So really it makes you pull over for a potty stop that your wife and kids would be yelling for anyway :).

The other plane that I sat in and discussed with Ron from Premier Aircraft, San Antonio, TX (45 mis from the Mooney factory) was the latest and greatest Mooney.  Typically I think of Mooney’s as nice little go fast airplanes that are usually flown at high altitude, but are cramped and will make my wife claustrophobic.  This one, although cozy has very good seat adjustment both up and down as well as sliding that allowed me (tall from the wait up) a 6′ person to get comfortable both for the flying and for the stretch-out of a cross country flight, without spilling into my passengers lap or taking all the room from the rear seat passenger.  So I have to give Mooney a thumbs up on ergonomics and “cozy-roominess” in their latest flying machine. Ron was also nice enough to give me a great demo of the G1000 from Garmin, WOW what a feature and bonus to the cockpit (wx, traffic, taxi help, you name it)!

Finally, what always seems to be my favorite plane ‘on paper’ is the Diamond DA-42 Twin Star.  It is a nice plane, with great visibility, but like most of the other Diamond products it leaves you with no options on seat adjustment and the head room both front and rear is lacking.  My head hits the roof in the back (with no headset on) unless I uncomfortably slouch and with my Lightspeed headset on I am constantly hitting my head while flying.

Well if you get a chance to visit one of the Parade of Piston shows at one of the other locations you should find it to be a nice little event that lets you window shop or personally shop in a great enviroment with planes, dealer, lenders and accounts to tell you how you can “get the plane for FREE” in tax breaks if you buy it this year.  So go check it out!  Our calendar has an aviation events section for the other locations as well as view or add other aviation events.