Mooney is planning a
three-week demonstration tour "down under" in Australia commencing
on February 29--the extra day added to the calendar for Leap Year,
2008. The tour will include a dozen stops.
Highlighting the Mooney "Leap Down Under" tour will be a
Victorian Labour Day weekend at the Mighty Mitta Muster on March
8-10 and three days, March 14, 15, and 16 at a Mooney Pilot
Proficiency Program in Jandakot. Flying a new Mooney Acclaim, the
fastest single engine airplane currently in production, Mooney's
Sales Representatives will work with members of the Australian
Mooney Pilots Association (AMPA) to schedule demonstration flights
and ensure that the Acclaim is seen by as many prospects as
possible.
There are currently around 150 Mooneys based in Australia,
according to the AMPA.
The "Leap Down Under" tour will be officially launched with a
welcoming ceremony in Victoria at Wangaratta Airport on February
29. From there it will move to Coolangatta and Maroochydore,
Queensland for demonstrations on March 1 before continuing on to
Mackay, Queensland on the second and Dubbo and Bankstown in New
South Wales (N.S.W.) on March 3rd. The Acclaim's visit to New South
Wales will continue with the airplane on display at Bankstown on
the 4th before it is flown to Camden on March 5. It will stop in
the capital city of Canberra on the morning of Thursday, March 6
and then Griffith, N.S.W. in the evening.
From the 8th through the 10th the Acclaim will be part of the
festivities at the Mighty Mitta Muster in Mitta Mitta before it
repositions to Moorabbin, Victoria on the 11th. On the 12th plans
currently call for the airplane to be flown to Kalgoorie in Western
Austrailia before heading to the Mooney PPP at Jandakot on the
13th. The "Leap Down Under" tour will conclude with a visit to
Parafield in South Australia on the 17th before is dropped off in
Melbourne on the 19th to close the tour.
Mooney's director of international sales, Susan Harrison,
emphasized that the ambitious nature of the tour highlights the
versatility of the Acclaim and, for that matter, all the Mooney
models including the Ovation3 and Ovation2 GX, as well. "Making
more than a dozen widespread stops in such a compressed amount of
time requires aircraft that are easy to maintain and that can get
into and out of airports that won't accommodate airliners," she
noted. She pointed out that there are more than 7,800 currently in
service around the world. She also added that the new Acclaim Type
S, the world's fastest production single engine airplane, will
debut in the U.S. at the end of March. The streamlined version of
the Acclaim will cruise at an impressive 279 miles per hour at
25,000 feet. That's six miles per hour faster than the Acclaim that
will tour Australia. The first Type S is scheduled for delivery on
March 31.