Santa Needs A Heavy-Lifter To Deliver Toys, Give Reindeer A Break

Rumors continue to swirl down form the North Pole suggesting that the world's most renowned on-time delivery expert has chosen the Comp Air 7SLX to replace his fleet of aging reindeer. According to current rumors, the geriatric reindeer all have health problems; many are related to joint fatigue from the unusually high number of landing cycles they experienced.

Other reindeer teams have been used in the past, however due to their high maintenance cost, and ever increasing cost of FAA Approved hazardous in-flight waste collection systems and toxic emissions, Santa decided to move to a fixed wing.

"It was a tough decision, but I had to get into something more modern" Santa said. Santa picked the Aerocomp for its load carrying capacity, speed and low maintenance requirements. "It was easy really" Santa said. "The Cherokee and Cessna 172 simply didn't have the capacity or the speed. Other homebuilts fit the bill for speed but none could compare on load carrying capacity".

Santa is having a few extra special touches added to his Comp Air 7SLX dubbed the "Toy Monster". In addition to the normal IFR panel consisting of a Garmin 430 and KX155 radio, Santa is having a special transmitter installed that will track his location on NEXRAD automatically. "This will save the government millions" commented General Nodeeratall. "By tracking Santa automatically we can all go home early instead of tracking his position on the scope.

Santa is also installing a FLIC (Forward Looking Inferred Camera) to sense hot chimneys from the air.

"With the FLIC unit I can tell which side is best to approach a roof top, not to mention the time saved not getting burned" said Santa.

Currently, Blitzen is attending flight school to take over Rudolf's navigation responsibilities. There will be a specially mounted seat next to Santa to accommodate the reindeer's ergonomics. Santa's seat has also been modified to match the comfort and ease of boarding and exiting.

Santa is also attending flight training, mainly in the subjects of short field landing and takeoff and high speed operations. Since Santa routinely lands in short distances, and takes off down-slope, the training is being conducted in a mountainous area.

The airplane is almost complete.

The plane is currently being finished at the North Pole where Santa's elves quickly adjusted from wood glue to composite construction, though the elves insisted that a set of traditional antlers be mounted on the airplane. After much debate about the loss of cruise speed the elves eventually won out.

With the addition of the Comp Air 7SLX to this year's delivery schedule this Christmas is expected to go smoother than ever before. Don't expect to see Santa's Toy Monster at Oshkosh though, Santa has told us that he is going to be spending the summer in Cancun working on his tan.

So this year Santa's cheery "and to all a good night" will be heard with the signature sound of the Walter M601 Turbine spooling up and lighting off.

Merry Christmas!

FMI: www.aerocompinc.com