In October 2021 I sold my Cessna Conquest 441 and bought a 2002 Cessna Encore. The Encore has the PW535A engines with 3400 lbs of thrust, "same" as on the Phenom 300 and Encore+ (but without Fadec). The engines are supposedly derated from 4000 lbs thrust, so they run fairly "cold" and never even close to redline. I typically run them at 600 degrees or below for all operations except takeoff, redline is 700 degrees. Fuel planning is easy, it is uses about exactly 2X per mile of the 441 :-) But it is 100+ knots faster....and flies 10,000 feet higher, with ease.
The maximum ground weight is 16830 lbs, empty weight is 10276 lbs, and it holds 5440 lbs (806 Gal) of fuel. There is a 2-seast sideway sofa behind teh copilot, a 4-seat club, 2 more front facing seats, and a belted potty.

Mine has a Garmin GTN 725 (the GTN 750 without comm and nav radios), which I use for all flights. The Universal FMS is mainly utilized to make cockpit egress more difficult!
The Honeywell Primus system flies the plane well. Only drawback is the Garmin GTN725 can't do VNAV descents - instead I use the autopilot "wheel" to match the plane descend rate to the one the GTN 725 indicate. No big deal once I got used to it. ILS approaches work just fine, of course.

Since the engines run "cold" there is usually no problem flight planning gross weight takeoffs from Scottsdale (hot!!) or Flagstaff (7000 feet elevation and hot). I believe the hot takeoff conditions are where the Encore with its 535A engines shine.

I have taken it into deep stalls, beyond the stick shaker, and the plane just drops the nose and keeps flying. Very stable.
The thrust reversers have been very nice on snowy and icy runways when we use it to skiing. My plane did not have a ski-tube so I installed that. One thing I have experienced is that in order for the cabin heat to put out, the defrost fan must be on High, especially important above FL400.

The plane can climb directly to FL450 at gross on most days. However, due to concern with flying it single pilot and possible rapid decompression and very fast loss of consciousness at FL450 I usually fly around FL400. At FL450 it will do right around 400 knots on around 900 lbs/hr. At FL400 it can do 420 to 430 knots on around 1180 lbs/hr, but I often pull back to 1000 lbs/hr and 400 knots (FL400). So not a super large difference between FL450 and pulled back at FL400. At anything at or below FL410 the plane can be at close to VMMO, Mach 0.755 True airspeed is displayed on the MFD.

One reason I bough this particular plane was the engines were NOT on a plan - I did not want to pay for an expensive program I might not utilize. The engines are very expensive to overhaul. I hear numbers of $1M or more per engine..?

Another very nice thing is the single point refueling. It makes the refueling a lot easier than over-the wing.

For maintenance tracking I use Cescom, and got the plane enrolled in the low utilization Bacon program which extends service events to roughly 2X. Been happy with that.

What’s real world max range ?

About 3.5 hours with a 1,200# reserve, so 1,200-1,400 miles no wind.

Really? That is seems pretty crummy. Piaggio does that - I thought it was 1700nm!

I have flown it from Scottsdale to Sarasota a couple of times. No problem. My flightplan from Scottsdale to Miami for tomorrow shows 4 hours 10 minutes at FL450, 1738 NM, +65knot tailwind, and using 4005 lbs. A 1435 lb reserve. At FL400 the fuel burn would be 300 lbs more (+82 knot tailwind and 3hr 50 minutes).

So, subtract the average tailwind of 65knots * 4 hours is 260 miles to get a still air range of around 1478 NM, with 1400 lb reserve. Yes, not like my 441's 2200 NM range...
Another thing with a Jet is they burn quite a bit more fuel at lower altitudes than a turboprop, so they need more fuel reserves. I don't plan below 1000 lb reserve with the Encore, and much more when flying to Alaska. But even loaded the Encore makes it past the 441's ceiling of 35,000 feet in less than 15 minutes, still climbing at 2000+ ft/min, so fuel stops are less of a hassle.

Max, with PW535 not on program what are your options at TBO? Will Pratt or anyone else perform HSI on an engine over TBO?

My understanding is there are no options to go beyond TBO, at least not currently. I have 1300 hours to go until the 5000 hr overhaul. Maybe something will happen by then as more and more planes accumulate hours...?

The overhauls are very expensive, but when spread over 5000 hours it isn’t as bad as it seems. It cost $600k - $800k to overhaul a JT-15 at a DOF and that is over 3500 hours.

My V: 16,100 lbs ramp weight, 9215 lbs empty, 5814 lbs of fuel. My full fuel useful load is 1071 lbs. There is an SB to elevate this to 16,500 lbs ramp weight, which I don't have, which would increase this to 1471 lbs. My ZFW cabin load limits is 2985 lbs, so about 330 lbs per seat, basically no practical limit.

Your full fuel payload is 1114 lbs, roughly the same. The range is similar since your engines are more efficient and you climb faster, despite having less fuel.

Where did Cessna find 1000 lbs more stuff to stick on an Encore? It is basically the same size as my plane (slightly longer wingspan). Where did those 1000 lbs go?

If/when there is a Garmin G700 + AP upgrade so you can ditch the Primus 1000 system, you will gain a huge amount of useful load, maybe as much as 500 lbs. May end up kind of tail heavy, but that's still better than what you have now.

I didn't consider an Encore due to PW500 series costs and lack of shop flexibility, but it is a nice airplane with fully heated wing and great performance, while still having TRs.

Mike C.

Less at other shops if you aren't a DOF snob.

The PW500 is limited to Pratt and Standard Aero (which does what Pratt wants, so basically the same). No real shop options, no operator choice to fly past TBO. My understanding is that PW535A OH is at least $1M per side.

DOF is designated overhaul facility, another name for "expensive shop".

Mike C.