October 10, 2007 AOPA Expo 2007 Podcast Round-Up: Complete Audio Coverage from Hartford, CT

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by	Paul Bertorelli, Jeff van West, Mike Blakeney
	Aviation Consumer Editor (Bertorelli) IFR Editor (van West) Audio Editor (Blakeney)

Last week, we managed to record a bumper crop of podcasts with the aviation industry's leading figures — covering topics that ranged from inside the cockpit (synthetic vision) to new airplanes (from Diamond and Cessna) to Lockheed Martin's embattled perspective on the newly-privatized AFSS system. In case you missed any, here's a complete recap of our exclusive audio coverge from the show:

• Piper CEO Jim Bass introduces the Piper Matrix, a non-pressurized variant of the company's popular Mirage.
• Heike Larson from Diamond Aircraft rolls out the welcome mat again — this time for two new builds based on the venerable DA40, the high-end XLS and the introductory CS.
• Dan Courain of Lockheed Martin answers criticisms of the newly-privatized AFSS system (and there are many) and shares a few of LockMart's strategies for stabilizing and growing the new system.
• University of North Dakota flight operations director Don Dubuque tells us what they're going to do with the brand-new Diamond D-Jet acquired by their training department. (It didn't involve flying us home from the show.)
• Tecnam's Lynne Birmingham says the LSA manufacturer is ready to move into making Part 23-certified aircraft, including a retractable-gear trainer and a new light twin.
• VistaNav's Jeff Simon knows there are a lot of synthetic vision products on the market competing for your cockpit spending; in this interview, he shares a few of the reasons why VistaNav continues to be an industry leader in a tight market.