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No one can deny Cirrus Aircraft is producing some of the most popular single-piston high-performance aircraft on the market. Since their start in 1984, their fleet of over 6,500 SR series aircraft has expanded across the globe to over 60 countries. In addition, they have introduced the world’s first single-engine personal jet which was FAA certified in October 2016. Almost 600 production positions for the Vision Jet have already been reserved. The question is, what makes Cirrus Aircraft the choice of so many pilots across the globe? Three local North Dakota Cirrus pilots have shared what they love about their aircraft. Brad Maier, president of J&S Heavy Haul, Mike Nehring, a multi-state business owner and operator, and Chad Wachter, CEO of Investcore, Inc., weigh in on why they are proud owners of a Cirrus SR22. 1. Why did you choose your Cirrus model?Brad: I chose Cirrus for all of the safety features built into the aircraft. The parachute is a huge safety aspect. Also, the redundancy element is great, because it duplicates virtually everything so you always have a backup.Mike: I chose my Cirrus based off of my four criteria: Comfort, Avionics, Performance, and Safety (CAPS). The roominess in the aircraft is incredible. You can fit four adults and still have room to move your arms. The avionics is a first-class platform not only for training but also real-world use. I have owned a SR20 and an SR22 non-turbo and both are very fast. On the safety side, they have it covered from the airframe parachute to the littlest aspects in the avionics system. Chad: I selected Cirrus because of the quality of their product and their excellent customer service. The SR22 has proven to be the perfect aircraft for my most common goals and objectives, mostly travelling within 500 miles of Bismarck. I use it mainly for work, but there are times when the kids have sports or an event going on and it’s much more efficient than driving. It’s very easy to fly and

makes being up in the air a lot of fun.2. What is your favorite feature about Cirrus aircraft?Brad: My favorite features would have to be the visibility from the cockpit, as well as the safety and redundancy features. And I have to say, the curb appeal is great! Mike: My favorite feature is the fly-ability of the aircraft. Its smooth flying in so many conditions, even turbulence. It’s simply a pleasure to fly, and I love the avionics too.Chad: I appreciate the Cirrus Perspective System and how much easier it makes it to fly the airplane. Cirrus integrated their own avionics with the Garmin 1000, which makes it a really nice management system to use while flying. 3. How has your Cirrus aircraft had an effect on your business and/or personal/family life? Brad: It has made trips possible that I would not have had time for unless I flew. I fly to Spearfish and Minneapolis quite a bit, and it’s only an hour and a half flight instead of six hours of driving.Mike: On the business side, since purchasing my first Cirrus I’ve been able to expand my work all over North Dakota and into Western Minnesota. I’m continually flying to every corner of the state. For recreational use, I have enjoyed finding opportunities and smaller airports off the beaten path. Now a weekend trip can be just about anywhere in the country.Chad: Owning a Cirrus has allowed me to be in more places and spend more time with my family and friends. I fly to Grand Forks quite a bit for business and my son goes to UND so I also get to see him when I’m out there. As a family, we often travel to Flying Cloud Airport in Minneapolis.

Customer Spotlight

Cirrus Aircraft

Vol. 20 Issue 2 May 2017

Periodical

continued on page 2

Mandan Aero Center • 701.663.9925 • mandanaero.com Bismarck Aero Center • 701.223.4754 • bismarckaero.com

Quarterly Recap

Mandan Aero Center and Bismarck Aero Center had a booth this spring at the 2017 Upper Midwest Aviation Symposium. Kris (left picture) and Nicolette (right picture) represented us at the booth during the event.

Shae, Dora and Linda spent a week in Fort Worth TX at the 2017 NBAA Schedulers and Dispatchers. Also pictured (third from the left) is Christine Wetherell, the lucky winner of our Victoria Secret gift card.

Next time you fly out of the Commercial Terminal building, make sure to check out the Bismarck Air Museum’s building model.

ND Aviation Council Chairman, Jon Simmers, is pictured during “Aviation Day” at the ND Capitol Building. Along with Jon, numerous other aviation leaders from across ND gathered at the capitol to emphasize the importance of aviation to our state’s economy. March was also officially named “Aviation Month” by ND Governor Burgum.

Bismarck Aero Center did an educational presentation for a 1 Million Cups event at the Dakota Stage. Topics included the positive effects of aviation to the communities across ND, what you probably didn’t know about private aviation and how private aviation is used to help grow businesses within our community.

4. What would you tell a potential Cirrus buyer?Brad: Go for it. They’re fast, efficient, safe and cutting edge! Mike: Once you’ve flown a Cirrus Aircraft, anything else leaves you wanting for more!Chad: There isn’t a better single-engine aircraft than the Cirrus. My family and I feel safe in it. Cirrus Aircraft has incredible customer service! It doesn’t get any better than owning a Cirrus!If you are Cirrus-ly interested in learning more about Cirrus Aircraft, don’t miss our upcoming Cirrus Open House, April 27th. More details can be found on page 3. See what opportunities you can have when you own a Cirrus!

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Mandan Aero Center • 701.663.9925 • mandanaero.com Bismarck Aero Center • 701.223.4754 • bismarckaero.com

Congratulations! Ray Brooks, CFI Lead Certified Flight Instructor

Ray, after being with Bismarck Aero Center (BAC) for over a year and a half, has

been promoted to Lead Certified Flight Instructor. Through his tenure with the company, he has proven his dedication to the company’s values, professionalism, customer service and safety.

Prior to Bismarck Aero Center, Ray was enlisted for 24 years in the United States Air Force where he retired as a Master Sergeant. A primary focus during his time as Master Sergeant was to train and mentor noncommissioned or junior commissioned officers. Ray enjoys the challenge of working with different individuals to find their best learning style and adapting his teaching to maximize the training experience. He is also an active member of the Civil Air Patrol.

Rick BloomPassed His IA Exam

Mandan Aero Center’s Aircraft Maintenance Technician, Rick Bloom, has passed the

certification exam to receive his Inspection Authorization (IA) license through the FAA. The IA license allows him to determine airworthiness by inspecting repairs or alterations for conformity to approved data and assure that an aircraft is in a condition for safe operation.

Before coming to Mandan Aero Center almost one year ago, Rick has been working in aircraft maintenance for nearly 30 years. After being honorably discharged from the United States Navy, Rick attended Cheyenne Aero Tech in Wyoming, where he received his A&P license for aircraft maintenance.

Kaelin Schneider Lead Flightline Technician Bismarck Aero Center is happy to announce that Kaelin has been promoted to Lead Flightline Technician.

Over his last six months with Bismarck Aero Center, he has been able to quickly gain the respect of his peers through a positive attitude and determined work ethic.

Aviation has always been a part of Kaelin’s life. Growing up with his family’s aerial application business at the Rugby Airport, he learned what it means to work hard to get the job done. Kaelin, along with his aviation work background, also has his Associate of Science in Business Management from BSC, private pilot’s license and just recently passed the written exam for an instrument rating.

The Cirrus Aircraft and Grumman AA series are two aircraft designs that use differential braking to maintain directional control during ground operations. Unlike other aircraft, there are no direct connections to the nose wheel and this patent works very well to allow pilots operating this type to get used to it quickly. Due to this steering design, it does put special emphasis on proper brake maintenance.

Cirrus Aircraft used to have a yearly recommendation to change the o-rings in the brake cylinders on the wheels. They later came out with a service bulletin that allowed maintenance facilities to modify the fairing near the brake and place a “Tell Tale” sticker on the cylinder. This sticker would tell the pilot

during their preflight if the brakes have been overheated. This great modification now allows owners to go up to five years before the disassembly of their brakes to allow new soft o-rings. Just like inside the top of a balloon envelope, the sticker will turn black if overheated.

New pilots and aircraft maintenance technicians should be taught, and experienced people reminded, not to ride the brakes to maintain speed control during taxiing. Pull the throttle back to slow down. This seems very simple, but it will minimize your likelihood of overheating the brakes.

Happy Flying!

Maintenance Corner

AA

viat i on Poker Run

Lunch from 11AM-1PMAll aircraft must be at the Mandan Municipal Airport

by 12PM.

MAY 13th

RULES:• $20 per participant, lunch included & fi rst 50 receive an event T-shirt

• Pick up 1 coupon per person at 3 different participating airports• 3 community cards will be fl ipped to help make your best 5 card hand

AshleyBismarck CarringtonDevils LakeDickinsonFargoGlen UllinHarveyHazeltonHazen

JamestownLintonMinot

NapoleonRichardton

RiverdaleValley CityWashburn

Watford CityWilliston

All proceeds go to support Scottish Rite Speech Therapy Center for Children.Questions? Contact Shae at 701.223.4754 or shaeh@bismarckaero.com

6th Annual

$400 grand prize! $300 in additional prizes

Mandan Aero Center • 701.663.9925 • mandanaero.com Bismarck Aero Center • 701.223.4754 • bismarckaero.com

Industry leading Garmin is making it easy and affordable to have a modern “glass cockpit” for your aircraft with the G5 glass upgrade. Designed for installation in single and twin piston aircraft, the G5’s bright, sunlight readable 3.5-inch LCD color display fits into a standard 3-1/8 round cutout. While taking up a fraction of valuable space and weight previously required by conventional gyro-based instruments, this unit is very easy to install and reliable in both IFR and VFR conditions.

When configured as the attitude indicator, the G5 uses solid-state AHRS reference to provide smooth, steady and reliable horizon-based pitch and roll indications. In addition to aircraft attitude, this unit will support the display of of airspeed, altitude, vertical speed, slip/skid, turn rate, configurable V-speed references, barometric setting and selected altitude, as well as visual alerts upon arriving at a preselected altitude. A built-in GPS receiver provides accurate groundspeed and ground track readouts.

Recently announced, the G5 electronic flight instrument has also been approved as a replacement directional gyro (DG) or horizontal situation indicator (HSI) in your panel. It can serve as your primary reference source for magnetic heading, VOR/LOC guidance and/or GPS course guidance, as well as providing distance and groundspeed indications. The unit will display both vertical and lateral GPS/VOR/LOC course deviation when available.

If that wasn’t enough to show the value of the G5, this unit also offers flexibility in panel configuration options and allows for added redundancy. Up to 2 G5 displays can be incorporated into a single aircraft panel in several approved combinations, including the attitude, DG/HSI or turn coordinator positions. In dual installations, a secondary G5 can revert to display attitude information in the unlikely event of a failure. The easy-to-use menu enables manual selection and interchange between the attitude indicator and DG/HSI display. Along with being a backup to each other, each unit includes a 4-hour back-up battery for use in the event of an aircraft electrical system failure. In dual configurations, customers receive dual ADAHRS and dual back-up batteries, offering safety-enhancing redundancy.

To get more information on the G5 Electronic Flight Instrument and all its uses, contact Kris Hexom at 701.223.4754 or krish@ bismarckaero.com.

Product Spotlight

Garmin G5 Electronic Flight Instrument

New Hires!Christine Stavn Part-Time Accounting Assistant

Christine comes to Bismarck Aero Center as a part-time Accounting

Assistant. A former University of Mary graduate, Christine’s main duties will be to work with our Controller on accounting activities ranging from accounts payable, account reconciliation and month end work. This work will help our administrative department flow better and even improve on our current accounting processes.

Before moving back to Bismarck, Christine spent 12 years as the Office Manager with the Salvation Army in

Atlanta, GA. Through her time there, she was responsible to oversee financial aspects of her office, budget management, accounts receivables, payables, payroll, policy compliance, and other human resources tasks. Before that, Christine worked as a Residential Trainer and Manager at non-profit organizations that work with individuals that have developmental disabilities. With her diverse administrative background and positive attitude, Christine will be a great fit for our organization.

Lindsay Gerhardt Full-Time Flightline Technician

Beulah ND native, Lindsay joins the Bismarck

Aero Center (BAC) team as a full-time Flightline Technician. Before BAC, her passion for aviation lead her to work in airline ground handling at the Bismarck Airport Commercial Terminal. The experience gave her a lot of education for large commercial aircraft, training to mentor new co-workers and helped her polish-up her customer service skills working with airline passengers.

While working on the Flightline, Lindsay will use her customer service skills to enhance the department’s one-of-a-kind experience for all BAC customers. Her friendly personality, determination and great work ethic will make her a key contributor to the success of our BAC team.

April 27th Cirrus Open House at Bismarck Aero Center’s new hangar from 4:30 to 7pm

May 10th Aviation Career Day at the Bismarck Airport

May 13th 6th Annual Aviation Poker Run, ends at Mandan Airport

June 2nd Colbie Fandrich Memorial Walk, in Wishek, ND

June 11th Mandan Municipal Airport Fly-in

Sept. 10th 7th Annual Bismarck Fly-in Pancake Breakfast

Events to look forward to

Cirrus Design Corporation is one of world’s leading innovator of single-engine piston-powered aircraft. One of the most unique features of their aircraft is that each is equipped with the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS). It consists of a ballistic rocket-fired parachute that extracts a large round parachute attached to the airframe. As of 2017, CAPS has aided in 71 saves with 146 survivors. When was the first CAPS save?

Trivia

2301 University Drive Bldg. 53 Bismarck, N.D. 58504701.223.4754 www.bismarckaero.com

Submit your answer before May 25th for a chance to win a gift card to the Cirrus Aircraft online store! Contact Shae Helling at shaeh@bismarckaero.com or 701.223.4754.

Last newsletter’s correct answer was C. John F Kennedy was the first president to use the First US Air Force One. Even though President Eisenhower flew on a Boeing 707 in 1959 to Europe, it was John F. Kennedy that became the first President to fly in a jet aircraft specifically built for presidential use. Congratulations to Kevin Vossler for being this quarter’s lucky winner!

Keep up to date with events, aviation news and cool aircraft! Follow us at:

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a) July 1998b) October 2002c) February 2007d) August 2010