Happily, the days of a dealer tossing the keys to a new owner and wishing him luck are gone, at least for most of the industry. The delivery process today, even for light airplanes, is extremely involved. Before a new owner leaves the factory with his brand-new, shiny flying machine, he’ll have to sit down with several delivery team members to go over a number of safety, legal, contractual and operational issues. And that’s not to mention the type-specific pilot training that manufacturers, along with the insurance companies, are more and more requiring pilots to take before it’s time to fly away.
I recently had the opportunity to take delivery of a brand-new airplane-a Cirrus G3 Turbocharged-at the Cirrus Design factory in Duluth, Minnesota. The airplane was one of four initial G3 Turbos delivered in August to PlaneSmart, the shared ownership company I fly with out of my home base of Austin, Texas. The company has an extended order for a large number of additional Cirrus aircraft, the full details of which haven’t been released yet, but the aroma of kerosene will likely be part of the plan.
