Mooney Airplane Company has named Aviones Mooney de Venezuela in Caracas as its sales representative for Venezuela, Panama, Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. Aviones de Mooney de Venezuela's principle owner, Alberto Villasmil, previously served as a Mooney representative in the early 1980s.

"We are pleased to establish this relationship with the producers of the world's single engine piston performance leaders," said Villasmil, who is also the president of Hertz Rent-A-Car in Venezuela. "General aviation is growing throughout Latin America and we anticipate enthusiastic interest in Mooney throughout this region. Mooneys have always been great airplanes. People fall in love with them and their speed. It really is amazing to go faster than piston twins in a single engine airplane, but that's what a Mooney can do…and it has incredible range, too. It's an ideal airplane for the Caribbean region because our average trips are about 500 miles. That's how far it is to go from Venezuela to the islands. With a Mooney we can accomplish this trip in under three hours and do the round trip on one tank of gas. That's an obvious cost-savings, too," he added.

Villasmil, who is an Air Transport rated pilot with more than 7,000 hours of flight experience, is teaming with Aerotecnica S.A. to provide an authorized service center in Caracas as well. Aerotecnica operates a 16,000 square meter facility with approximately 20 employees.

Villasmil recently placed an order for a new Ovation3, which will be utilized as a demonstrator. "We plan to commence a demonstration tour of Venezuela when we get the airplane at the end of August," he explained. "We will make stops in key cities, including Valencia, Barquisimeto, Maricaibo, Barcelona, Margarita and Puerto Orvaz to announce that Mooney has returned to Venezuela," he said.

"Venezuela and Brazil are South America's leading markets for general aviation and Alberto Villasmil is an experienced and extremely respected leader of the GA community. We are also pleased to have renewed our relationship with him," said Susan Harrison, Mooney's manager of international sales.

Aviones de Mooney de Venezuela will be located at Aeropuerto Caracas.

FMI: www.mooney.com