SOCATA TB family

General characteristics

• Crew: one, pilot
• Capacity: 3–4
• Length: 7.63 m (25 ft 0 ¹⁄₂ in)
• Wingspan: 9.76 m (32 ft 0 ¹⁄₄ in)
• Height: 3.20 m (10 ft 6 in)
• Wing area: 11.90 m² (128.1 sq ft)
• Airfoil: RA 16.3
• Aspect ratio: 8:1
• Empty weight: 670 kg (1,477 lb)
• Max. takeoff weight: 1,150 kg (2,530 lb)
• Powerplant: 1 × Lycoming O-360-A1AD 4-cylinder horizontally opposed air-cooled piston engine, 134 kW (180 hp)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 247 km/h (133 knots, 153 mph)
• Cruise speed: 235 km/h (127 knots, 146 mph)
• Stall speed: 97 km/h (52 knots, 60 mph)
• Range: 1,210 km (653 nmi, 752 mi)
• Service ceiling: 3,048 m (10,000 ft)
• Rate of climb: 4.0 m/s (790 ft/min)

The Socata TB is a series of light single engine piston aircraft manufactured by Daher-Socata and designed in the late 1970s. All aircraft (with the exception of the TB9) have a constant speed propeller. The TB series have become widely used training and touring aircraft and are often used for instrument training.
The TB series planes have come to be known as the "Caribbean Planes", due to their island names, though they are not often seen flown in that region. They are defined by their superior (and contemporary) fit and finish and interior size; compared to other four-seat single-engine aircraft, they are relatively roomy at 49 inches (124 cm) at the shoulder, plus or minus. In part this is due to the fuselage having a pronounced "round out" above the wing. Adding to the actual spaciousness, the side windows extend up well into the roof line, giving the Socata an airy feeling.
Due to the larger fuselage, and relatively heavy weights, TB series aircraft have lower performance figures than a similarly sized and powered but narrower aircraft, and the trade-off of in speed for comfort is often cited by TB owners.
The letters TB in the name stand for Tarbes, a city in the south of France where the aircraft is manufactured.

Development

Design work on the TB series began in the mid 1970s to replace Socata's successful Rallye series of aircraft. The TB20 model was certified in France on December 18, 1980. The first delivery to a customer happened in March 1981 in Germany. All aircraft in the series were modernised in 2000 and as a result the letters GT were added (GT standing for Generation Two). The GT versions have a bigger cabin and aerodynamic improvements. The most noticeable differences between the first and second generation models are the wing tips, which are rounder on the older models, and the vertical stabiliser, which is curved on the lower front on the GT models. The looks of the rear windows have also changed, being more blended with the fuselage on the GT models.

Design

Socata TB10 Tobago GT owned by Martinair vliegschool (flying school)

Socata TB20 Trinidad with retractable landing gear

Socata TB20 Trinidad GT

The aircraft all have the same basic fuselage and interior. The primary differences between the models are the landing gear, engine, and propeller.

• TB-9, TB-10, and TB-200 have fixed landing gear and optional landing gear fairings.
• TB20 and TB21 have retractable landing gear.
• TB-9 was offered with a 160 horsepower (119 kW) normally aspirated engine and either a two-bladed, fixed-pitch propeller or a two-bladed, constant speed propeller ("Tampico CS").
• TB-10 was offered with a 180 horsepower (134 kW) normally aspirated engine and a two-bladed, constant-speed propeller.
• TB-200 was offered with a 200 horsepower (149 kW) normally aspirated engine and two-bladed, constant-speed propeller
• TB-20 was offered with a 250 horsepower (186 kW) normally aspirated engine, and either a two- or three-bladed constant speed propeller.
• TB-21 was offered with a 250 horsepower (186 kW) turbocharged engine and a three-bladed constant speed propeller. 

• Operators

  Military operators

   France

• French Air Force

 Greece

• Greek Coast Guard - received two TB.20s in 1988.^[7]

 Indonesia

• Indonesian Navy

 Israel

• Israeli Air Force

 Jordan

• Royal Jordanian Air Force

 Turkey

• Turkish Navy

Civil operators

 Singapore

• Republic Of Singapore Flying Club
• Singapore People's Flying Club

 India

• Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi(IGRUA), Raebareli(U.P)
• Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Sri Shakthi Institute of Engineering and Technology

 Poland

• Aviation Training Center of Rzeszów University of Technology

 France

• Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes - TB.20 Trinidad
• Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile - 33 TB.20 Trinidad and 10 TB.20 GT

 Indonesia

• Indonesian Civil Aviation Institute (ICAI) ^[8]

 Netherlands

• AIS Flight Academy
• Martinair Flight Academy
• Police Aviation Service Dienst Luchtvaart Politie

 Nigeria

Nigerian College of Aviation Technology ^[9]

 Philippines

• Philippine State College of Aeronautics (PHILSCA)

 Thailand

• Civil Aviation Training Center (CATC) Thailand

 Spain

• Adventia European College of Aeronautics
• Falcon Air Academy

 Australia

• Flight Training Adelaide

TB-9 at Viterbo, Italy Air Club

 Portugal

• Aeronautical Web Academy

 Iran

• Civil Aviation Training Center(CATC) Iran

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7 things individuals forgets to ask their email marketing vendor

At times, selecting an email marketing vendor can feel like walking around a Moroccan souk. Display a slight interest and providers will descend on you from all angles, promising you the world in a language you don’t fully understand. So how can you cut through the noise and find out who can deliver?
First you need to understand your business needs.five most important features of an email marketing platform (according to customers) as:

• Sending outbound emails
• High-volume sending
• Email and mobile previews
• Automated email responses
• Basic reporting

To seasoned marketers, none of these will come as a surprise. Sending emails in high volume is the essential function of an email service provider (ESP). Mobile optimization has been a key concern for years, with 54% of emails now opened on a mobile device, compared to just 16% on desktop. The time and cost savings of automated emails are well established, and accurate reporting is a fundamental part of testing and optimization.
There are over 100 ESPs on the market, of which almost all will offer these features as standard. If you’re after a new ESP or just want to sanity check your current one, you can certainly rule out any providers that don’t hit these criteria. But how can you differentiate among the ones who do? How can you be sure you’re paying for the functionality your business needs before you commit?

Does your ESP have these features?

Vendor websites can make big claims about innovative features, but the everyday functionality is just as important. Some backburner features to quiz potential vendors on include:

• Automatic list de-duplication. Some top-end software providers offer this feature to save you the hassle of manually cleaning your mailing list data.
• Bounce management. What data do you get back from a bounce notification? Are addresses that bounce cleaned automatically?
• Batch sending. When an email is sent out to a list of 10,000, some vendors deliver these in batches rather than all-at-once. The former is more reliable, but can alter exact send times. Something to bear in mind.
• Deliverability enhancement tools. Deliverability is a key issue for email marketers. Although a high deliverability rate is mostly down to adhering to best practices, some ESPs have features designed to help. Ask about…
  • Any in-built tools in the platform to optimize deliverability.
  • Whether they record ‘Inbox Placement Rate’ – arguably a better measure of the true number of emails delivered than simple deliverability metrics, as emails flagged as spam are often counted within the ‘delivered’
  • Standard protocol for deliverability issues – is there a support team in place?

Research the vendor, not just the platform

There are several other non-feature-related aspects of a vendor that are worth being inquisitive about:

• Downtime – ask for a realistic uptime percentage as a figure to compare between vendors (no ESP can guarantee 100% uptime, so be skeptical of any that claim to).
• Service Level Agreement. Is the document long? Yes. Can it be completely impenetrable? Sure. But read it if you can. If nothing else, see if they offer compensation for any revenue lost due to downtime/outages (but don’t hold your breath).
• Data security. Ultimately you will be held accountable for your customers’ data breaches, so get all the information you can on the vendor’s security features.

Tips for comparing vendors

Make a list of essential features before doing your research. This will help you avoid ‘shiny object syndrome’ and keep your real priorities front and centre.
Some features sound great in a sales pitch, but go largely unused – either because they’re actually not the useful (who needs SMS messaging functionality?), or because they require too much time or investment to extract the benefit (multivariate testing, for example).
Talk to customers in your industry. Each sector has its idiosyncrasies, many of which will not become obvious until you’re six months into your email strategy. Speaking to those with hands-on experience will let you see into the future: those features you thought you’d use may turn out to be irrelevant, or not function in the way you imagined.
Don’t settle for case studies – see if the ESP can connect you with a real customer. Most customers will be happy to talk candidly about the platform, and will give you a much better sense of how effective it is than the salespeople.
Get demos from your shortlist of providers. This is obvious, but make sure you understand exactly how it looks and how to interact with it. Bear in mind that interface is as important as functionality.
An ESP that’s clunky and unintuitive will make your life hell. If you’re transitioning away from an old ESP, bear in mind that you’ll need to train your team to use the new software. Ask the provider if they offer one-to-one onboarding or e-learning resources to help bring everyone up to speed.

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