80 Percent Of Country's Fleet In Attendance

The first Australian fly-in of TBM owners, pilots, and industry partners was hosted by EADS Socata last weekend at Gold Coast Airport in Coolangatta, Queensland.

Representatives with Socata tell ANN the gathering was a "total success," attracting 31 participants and bringing together three TBM 700s and two new TBM 850s -- representing 80% of the TBM fleet in Australia.

The get-together also featured briefings on the new Garmin G1000 cockpit system -- which was introduced on the TBM 850 in 2008, and is expected to feature Garmin's Synthetic Vision Technology in the first quarter of 2009.

"We are extremely pleased by this initial TBM Australian Gathering, which is another sign of the TBM’s excellent success in the Australian market," said Nicolas Chabbert, EADS Socata’s Vice President Sales & Marketing.

"This is the result of the recent years of marketing efforts by Mark Diaz, EADS Socata’s country representative, which included a 20,000-nautical-mile-long demo tour across the Pacific in 2007. The 2008 Australian Gathering provided us a great opportunity to listen to our customers, and which enables our team to act on their feedback. As a result, a certain number of customer support initiatives are now at work."

Industry partners who joined Socata’s presentations at the Australian Gathering included Pratt & Whitney (Asia Pacific), the Civil Aviation Safety Authority for RVSM, QBE Aviation Insurance, Complete Avionics, Angel Flight Australia, Strategic Aviation, Joss Group, McDonald Holdings and Runge Aviation.

FMI: www.socata.eads.net, www.tbm850.com