“Columbia 2536 Tango is cleared to the I69 airport, direct Hagerstown VOR, then as filed, maintain 4,000, departure on 134.15, squawk 0510.” I have gotten that same route clearance many times in my P210 and to take the measure of the new Columbia 400 I would run it out and back over this familiar 320-nm route (to and from Clermont Airport in Ohio) to see how much its speed would change the life of a pilot flying one of the “old fashioned” high-performance singles. It would also be a prime time to enjoy the complete Garmin G1000 package, including the autopilot, which is brand new in the Columbia and makes the 400 a truly integrated airplane. We’ll fly the flight and then talk about some details.
Columbia regional sales manager Keith Martinich was the demo pilot and the Columbia is a simple enough airplane that we got it going without much fanfare. The Columbia G1000 installation includes the keypad mounted just ahead of the center armrest and fuel selector, and this was used to input the four waypoints for the flight plan as well as for frequency management. I think this keypad is going to be extremely popular because it is a much more straightforward method of data entry than we have been used to.
