Conklin & de Decker of Orleans, MA, and Arlington, TX, and Aircraft Shopper Online of Corte Madera, CA, are expanding the availability of aircraft cost reports online from the present offering of piston, fixed-wing aircraft to more than 300 turbine fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft from the Bell 47G3 to the Boeing 747-400.

Conklin, showing at Booth 6813 and ASO at Booth 3225, have joined forces to make the Conklin & de Decker cost reports available to internet users. Visitors to ASO's web site at www.ASO.com can click an icon on the screen to view a sample report for the aircraft of their choice which provides direct costs, variable costs, annual budgets, performance and specification data. Users can select two or more types for comparison purposes. Costs range from $24.95 for a piston aircraft report and $14.95 for subsequent such reports to $99.80 and $59.80 respectively for a transport jet report.

Conklin & de Decker has also released its 15th anniversary edition of the Aircraft Cost Evaluator, which is also available on CD-ROM. The software version, called ACEWinTM, is available in Windows 3.x and Windows 9x/NT4 versions.

The online reports are interactive in that the user can click on a cost item and a small window appears with a simple explanation. Conklin Partner David Wyndham told a media briefing Monday that figures in the online report cannot be manipulated but they can be fine-tuned in the CD-ROM version if the user experiences different costs than the database.

Wyndham also announced Monday that Nel Sanders, longtime senior tax manager for NBAA, will join the Conklin & de Decker staff Nov. 1, working in Washington, DC. She will continue working closely with NBAA after starting her new position, he said.

"We are thrilled to have a person of Nel's caliber join our company," said founding partner Al Conklin. "She brings another dimension to the wide range of consulting services we already offer." Wyndham said Sanders' expertise will "close the loop" in providing complete costs analyses to customers. Sanders will continue to offer her popular tax seminars throughout the United States in 2000.

Wyndham said the new 1999 Cost Evaluator tracks costs, not just for the 15 years of Conklin & de Decker's existence, but back to 1971 when Conklin retired from Falcon Jet and formed a consulting service.

Fuel has emerged as a "bargain" in the 28 years tracked in the report, he said. If it had increased with the cost of living generally, it would have to sell for more than $2.50 today.

Aircraft acquisition costs have risen faster than the cost of living but the new aircraft have better performance, more technology, longer TBOs and better warranties than the 1971 versions.