I recently attended the Great Planes Air Expo at Flying Cloud Airport in the Twin Cities area. Organized by KCAC Aviation in Olathe, KS, and held at the Premier Jet Center facility, the GPAE was a quiet and low-key way of learning about some of general and business aviation’s popular aircraft.
The Great Planes Air Expo is designed to bring a handful of aircraft to you at different locations around the Midwest. After the Twin Cities, the Expo was headed to Rochester, MN, and Milwaukee, WI, to spend a day at each location.
On display at Flying Cloud were a Cirrus SR-22, Pilatus PC-12, Quest Kodiak, Daher TBM, Embraer Phenom 100, Textron Aviation’s Cessna Citation and Caravan. In addition, there were insurance and finance companies on hand.
Mike Turner, marketing director for KCAC Aviation, explained the Expo like this, “Big shows like AirVenture, NBAA BACE and others require a huge time commitment for people to attend if they only want to look at one or two airplanes. This is a way pilots, owners, and operators or virtually anyone can do some comparison shopping and spend quality time looking at airplanes and visiting with sales reps in a very easy and relaxed way.”
I have to agree. Although I am not in the market for one of these airplanes (I wish I was), I was able to take a close look and talk with OEM staff knowledgeable on the operation and maintenance aspects of this small group of airplanes. Besides, it doesn’t take much of a reason for me to visit an airport, talk airplanes, and support the local aviation comunity.
The Great Planes Air Expo will be making stops August 29-30 in Iowa and Nebraska, and September 18-19 in Illinois and Indiana. For more information visit https://greatplanesairexpo.com/.
Ron
