Coming Soon To A City Near You!

While the official start of airshow season may still be a few months away, Columbia Aircraft's mobile Columbia experience -- the Fly Columbia Tour -- is already back on the road. The Tour launches its 30-stop '06 campaign this weekend at the Barrett Jackson Collectors Car Auction in Scottsdale, AZ.

"We had extremely good customer response from last year's tour," said Columbia Vice President of Marketing and Sales Randy S. Bolinger. "For 2006, we're getting started a little earlier and adding almost a third more dates to the schedule. We're going to be at a variety of types of events from national airshows to regional fly-ins to industry trade shows and special events like the Barrett-Jackson auto auction. It's going to be a lot of fun."

The Tour's centerpiece is an 18-wheel semi with a trailer that opens up to create a mobile showroom. This showroom includes interactive exhibits, audio visual programs and a full size cockpit mock-up featuring the Columbia's new Garmin G-1000 installation with ReadyPad™ remote access data entry system. Columbia 350 and 400 aircraft will also be present at most Tour stops.

"We developed the Fly Columbia Tour after seeing people's reactions when they toured the factory in Bend. It's just so impactful when you can give someone a look behind the curtain, so to speak," Bolinger said. "Only so many people can come to Central Oregon and tour the factory, but we can bring elements of the factory tour experience on the road. This year the tour will visit 21 different states between January and November."

Here are the locations where you can look for the Fly Columbia tour:

January

• 14-22 Scottsdale, AZ SDL

February

• 11-12 Livermore, CA LVK
• 18-19 Las Vegas, NV VGT
• 25-26 Van Nuys, CA VNY

March

• 11-12 Austin, TX AUS
• 18-19 Tulsa, OK RVS

April

• 4-10  Lakeland, FL LAL
• 14-16 Ft. Lauderdale, FL FXE
• 21-23 Atlanta, GA PDK
• 28-30 Greensboro, NC GSO

May

• 5-7   Louisville, KY LOU
• 13-14 Pontiac, MI PTK
• 20-21 Chicago, IL PWK
• 27-28 Indianapolis, IN UMP

June

• 3-4   Frederick, MD FDK
• 7-8   New York, NY TBD
• 10-11 Nashua, NH ASH
• 16-18 LaCrosse, WI LSE

July

• 5-9   Arlington, WA AWO
• 15-16 Bend, OR S07
• 24-30 Oshkosh, WI OSH

August

• 4-5   Minneapolis, MN STP
• 8-9   Denver, CO APA
• 12-13 Salt Lake City, UT SLC

September

• 7-9   Carlsbad, CA CRQ
• 13-17 Reno, NV 4SD
• 30-1  Salinas, CA SNS

October

• 10-12 Scottsdale, AZ SDL
• 17-19 Orlando, FL MCO

November

• 9-11  Palm Springs, CA PSP

FMI: www.flycolumbia.com