The first Asia-based Daher TBM 930 has entered service with its Thai owner, Anutin Charnvirakul, who is also a former TBM 850 customer.
The businessmen flew the single-engined turboprop – registration HS-SST – from Daher’s production facility in Tarbes, southwest France to its new home in Bangkok. The 10,930km (5,910nm) journey included stopovers in Corfu, Greece; Aqaba, Jordan; Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, and Nagpur, India, says Daher. The aircraft averaged a cruise speed of 278kt (515km/h), and consumed around 159 litres (42 US gal) per hour.
The TBM 930 – the fourth iteration of the 26-year-old TBM series – was launched in April 2016 and features Garmin’s G3000 touchscreen glass flightdeck, a reconfigured cockpit, plus redesigned seating and upgraded interior trimmings and finishes.
The $4.1 million aircraft sits alongside the baseline Garmin G1000NXi-equipped TBM 900 in Daher’s line-up. The third generation TBM replaced the 850 in 2014.
Daher delivered 46 TBM 930s and eight TBM 900s in 2016.
Source: Flight International
