Trade-A-Plane changes

I will truly miss the printed version of Trade-a-Plane. I was used to seeing it at pretty much every FBO I landed at and always browsed through it. The yellow paper was pretty easy to spot. Kind of a stroke of genius really, if you think about it. It’s really iconic. I bet anybody who has more than 3 flight lessons knows what the yellow paper at the FBO is all about.
And of course, I looked at the cartoons first. But when buying and then selling a plane and during my job as chief pilot (while being involved at purchasing and selling aircraft to fit new contracts) it always gave us an idea where the industry was by looking at the aircraft prices of similar makes / models. This part is obviously not going away with the move to digital.

But there was a way more important element to the printed TAP for me personally. As the proud papa of Chuck and Julio, I really enjoyed the numerous comic strips people had cut out of the magazine and posted all over the FBO’s message boards, random walls, refrigerators, and bathrooms at almost every airport I flew into. What I always found really interesting and exciting was that it was never the same comic!

It seemed as if we had found something to laugh at for everyone in aviation at one time or another. That element is gone now and I will miss really miss running across these clippings when they start disappearing. But we will find a new way to bring Chicken Wings to FBO’s 😉