1985 Socata TB-20 Trinidad

When this aircraft arrived to its first owner in 1986 at Abbeyshrule Airfield as EI-BSV, people came from miles around just to look in the hangar door at it. It was a jaw dropping design that looked night and day better, than any other aeroplane around at the time. The Socata adverts in the flying magazines pushed the GA lifestyle with beautiful colour photos, when the world was still black and white. The slogan was “You’re ahead of your time, and so are our planes” The performance and capability at the time was hard to beat. The cabin was wider than many twins, with sculpted gull wing doors and featured better leg room than most cars. The aircraft had a clever flush riveted wing, with trailing link undercarriage and was capable of operating from short runways like Abbeyshrule at. Today this aircraft, now G-BMIX still turns heads. She still cruises at 165 knots on 14 GPH fuel burn, with the stability and great visibility that pilots have become accustomed to. This handsome single with it’s quiet cabin, can tackle crosswinds of 25kts with ease and in reality it’s all most private pilots will ever need in terms of capability. Useful load is just shy of 1300lbs which is more than a Piper JetProp. It is currently operated from a grass strip, with a proficient pilot and light fuel loads the take off roll can be as short as 250 meters. In the space of retractable touring aircraft, we think only the Comanche or an F33A could come close to the capability of the TB20. After that its down to price, and personal preference as to how the fly and appeal to you in terms of design. We would love to demonstrate the aeroplane in person, and show you what the aeroplane is capable of.