New a/c type for Ex A to spot.

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ian16th
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New a/c type for Ex A to spot.

#1 Post by ian16th » Thu Aug 23, 2018 2:57 pm

On Monday 20 August Mahindra the holding company of GippsAero announced the sale of the first GA-10 Airvan to Major Blue a charter and scenic flight operator based at Maun International Airport in Botswana. Presently Maun airport has 31 Airvan GA-8s in operation with six operators. The GA8 TC version features one Textron Lycoming TIO-540-AH1A cylinder direct drive fuel injected turbo charged engine rated at 320hp. This light utility aircraft is operated by one pilot and provides seating for seven passengers. Most operators were present at a dinner hosted by Airvan Africa at the Maun Lodge when the announcements were made by Keith Douglas, CEO of Airvan Australia.
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Re: New a/c type for Ex A to spot.

#2 Post by Ex-Ascot » Fri Aug 24, 2018 5:46 am

The Airvan is certainty a nice aircraft. I think that I am correct in saying that the GA-8 has a very similar engine to the C206. The Airvan has much better visibility from the pilots prospective. It has an incredibly low stall speed. You can hold it on the stall ease in rudder and it will just rotate in the air. Apparently! I gave it a bash once but couldn't get it to do it. The official pilot had never done it so couldn't demonstrate. BTW Mrs Ex-Ascot was the only passenger. We did climb to altitude to do it and I didn't spin it.

Major Blue is an Indian outfit. Half the pilots wear turbans (not joking). They arrived on the scene a few years ago with mega dosh and announced that they were going to take over the air charter business here. Mach Air who we have been using for 11 years are the most well established company (1994) and successful company who have just got rid of all their C206s and Airvans and now have an entire fleet of 10 C208s (Caravan). A few are brand spanking new at 2.3m USD a piece. The owner Stuart Mackay started off with himself, his wife, one pilot a C172 and a tin shack. It is now a massive operation. When I told him that we had bought a small estate here he announced that he had just bought a small farm on the edge of Kruger National Park with an airstrip so that he could weekly compute in his C210 from here. Great guy and self made millionaire with no business training as far as I know just a Rhodesian pilot with a vision and it worked. Very popular with his staff. Apparently a bloody tough examiner.
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