First published in Flight Levels Online, Summer 2013 issue
Neil and Lori Rosoff try out the Garmin 1000-equipped Commander 1000. Their 900 will also come equipped with the G1000.
The big story at the 2013 EAA AirVenture Oshkosh was the weather –– it was fantastic! AirVenture typically experiences extremes in weather, from broiling hot and humid to chillingly cold, severe thunderstorms to dry and parched. Not this year. The daytime temperature may have reached 80 at most, the nights were refreshing, and the only rain was a brief spritzing one afternoon. Fantastic!
Among the hundreds of thousands of people enjoying AirVenture and the weather was a sales crew from Eagle Creek Aviation Services, which had its Garmin 1000-equipped Commander 1000 on display. Chad Ahrens of Propulsion International shared the display with Eagle Creek. Ahrens talked to customers about Propulsion International’s Honeywell-backed engine maintenance plans.
AirVenture was productive for Eagle Creek. Neil and Lori Rosoff signed papers at the show to purchase a 900 Commander through Eagle Creek and upgrade it with the Garmin 1000 panel and S-TEC 2100 Digital Flight Control System.
Eagle Creek’s Garmin 1000 was on display for the estimated 500,000 people who attended EAA’s AirVenture Oshkosh. Staffing the display were (left-right) Chad Ahrens of Propulsion International; Eagle Creek Vice President Rick Branch; Jarrett Haffner, Eagle Creek Avionics Sales; and Jim Worrell, Eagle Creek Twin Commander Sales.
The Rosoffs, who live in New Jersey, currently own and fly a Piper Meridian. Their daughter soon will be moving from Roanoke, Virginia, to the midwest, and their son, who is getting married, is an on-air reporter for the CBS affiliate in Seattle. Much of their flying is to visit their family, and the flight to Seattle requires four fuel stops in the Meridian. The 900’s long-range tanks and fuel-efficient TPE331 engines will do it in one or two stops depending on winds, and in much less time.
“I’m getting a lot of plane for the money,” Rosoff commented. The decision to upgrade to the Garmin 1000 panel was an easy one for him. He learned to fly in a Cirrus SR22 with an all-glass panel, and the Meridian is equipped with a Garmin 1000 panel so the Commander panel will be familiar territory for him.
Eagle Creek is close to earning FAA supplemental type certification for the Garmin panel and S-TEC DFCS retrofit, and already has begun work on the first customer aircraft.
