A group of Australia’s leading Aviation Insurance brokers visited the Gippsland Aeronautics facility at Latrobe Regional Airport on February 18th.
Ian Smith and Barbara Willebrands of AON Aviation arranged the visit. The group also included Julian Fraser of QBE Aviation Aviation, Brendan Warner of Vero Aviation, Mark Bee and Peter Freeman of Aviation Office of Australia, and Sharyn Appleton and Greg Leeman of General and Aviation Underwriters.
The purpose of the visit was a general information visit with the aim of possibly realising benefits to the operators of Airvans through lower insurance premium rates.
Gippsland Aeronautics contends that the Airvan is an insurer friendly aeroplane. Whilst appearing little different to other General Aviation aeroplanes on the surface, the Airvan is a very modern aircraft in its design and systems and has been certificated by international airworthiness agencies, including the aviation authorities of Australia, the USA, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, to the worlds most modern and most stringent airworthiness standard, Federal Aviation Regulation 23 (FAR 23) at Amendment 54 status.
This standard demands increased safety measures not required of the previous generation of light aircraft, which were built to a much earlier standard. In the intervening 25 years since the vast majority of the existing general aviation fleet were certified the design rules were significantly upgraded.
No other comparable general aviation aircraft, can offer compliance to the same standards. Whilst there is a small number of brand new aircraft currently being manufactured worldwide, many of these are certified against much older design standards and none incorporate all of the recent improvements.
Certification to the current standard firstly reduces the chance of Airvan having an accident through enhanced structural, systems and handling requirements, secondly reduces the potential severity of injuries to passengers through fire proofing seating standard and passenger and cargo restraint requirements and finally its simple construction will enable repairs to be completed quickly and at low cost.
The Underwriters were given an in depth briefing, a tour of the factory to view Airvans under construction in detail and then a flight in the Airvan to enable them to appreciate the ease of operation and the stable flight characteristics of the type.
For information about this article please contact,
Marguerite Morgan
Sales Coordinator
Gippsland Aeronautics
PO Box 881
Morwell 3840
AUSTRALIA Tel: +1 3 5172 1200
Fax: +1 3 5172 1201 Email - sales@gippsaero.com |
