Thanks Allen for your very helpful input!

The Citation III is a cool airplane. It's fast, has good range, huge stand-up (nearly) cabin. It's a BIG jet and it's a pleasure to fly.

It was designed by Boeing engineers. It's a very complex aircraft, and COMPLETELY different than the rest of the Citation line. You can operate a Citation I or II for less than a King air per mile if you do it correctly. The III is not even close to 'reasonable' to operate. They are maintenance hogs and the bills are huge. I have owned a 501, a 550, a CJ2, and now a Lear 35A, and none of them have ever scared me from a financial standpoint. But if someone GAVE me a Citation III, the first thing I would do is sell it, and hope it didn't break before I could ....

As others have said: RUN!

I run a good sized FAA repair station and we currently have a C650 in for maintenance right now. We maintain several of them. I flat out love the aircraft! (this is not a good thing if you happen to own one) They are probably one of the most expensive things to maintain I work on. Parts prices are staggering. Expect to spend 100K a year on light maintenance years, when the big phases comes due, double that. If the engines are not on MSP when they hit TBO the planes basically worthless, you can buy two more cheaper than overhauling the engines. From a pilot/passenger standpoint they are superb aircraft, but if your footing the bills you better have deep pockets. There's a reason they are so cheap to buy.

That's a great line!

Robert

If he is really set on doing this, he should buy some block time from them.