Gallery Update: Ramp Shots from Salem

After getting back from a local flight (where I logged my 100th hour flying in the Piper Cherokee!), I got in a little spotting from the ramp after refueling the plane I flew. I actually had to wait at the fuel pumps because a corporate jet was leaving the ramp area for departure and I did not want to taxi behind it's jet blast! The jet I waited on was one of Costco Wholesale Corporation's Gulfstream G280s, one of several aircraft they're known to have in their corporate fleet. I also had a chance to see a pretty uncommon French single-engine airplane I noticed on the ramp and got a few pictures of it as well. It was a beautiful June day and I was glad for the photography opportunities!

Salem (SLE) 43

Preview:

Gulfstream Aerospace G280 (N82CW) taxiing for departure. Registered to everyone's favorite bulk warehouse club, Costco Wholesale!

N82CW departing on 34.

Sud Aviation Gardan GY-80-180 Horizon (N9829Y) parked on the ramp. Currently registered to Salem Air Center, the main FBO at the airport. My first time seeing this French design!

The GY-80 is a four-seat touring monoplane designed by Yves Gardan in the 1960s and built under licence, first by Sud Aviation, and later by it's subsidiary SOCATA.

A total of 267 GY-80 airframes were built, making it a somewhat uncommon sight. The GY-80 would later be improved and developed into the SOCATA ST-10 Diplomate in the 1970s, originally marketed as the Super Horizon 200; only 56 of the type would be built.