Yes, but it won’t touch the ground like a 35, and I know how you know….

Most guys only do it once, as it is a memorable sight, and wanting to spare themselves another future embarrassment.

We kept ours in a corporate hangar with others, and had an ex-Air Force crew chief. He called me up out of bed at 6 in the morning advising that I get my butt out to the hangar pronto.

He was standing in front of the plane and said "See that?" pointing to the 35 leaning on a wing tip. Then he said "See this?" handing me the checklist. "Use it next time!" I never forgot again.

I remember when a parked Eyhyl Corp 23 pilot lost track of time while flirting with the fuel desk girl once when I was working line service. I assume he was transferring fuel. It tipped over gently and didn’t seem to damage it. As I recall you could only put a 100 gallons in each tip at a time.

Not to derail the thread but this story would suggest that these aircraft have a powered cross flow on a battery buss? If so…why?

Not to derail the thread but this story would suggest that these aircraft have a powered cross flow on a battery buss? If so…why?

Thanks, Paul. That’s an interesting arrangement. I think I missed out by never flying the LRJET line…

The crossflow valve should cycle automatically when the fus tank is filled or emptied. The various pumps won’t run until the valves move to the correct position. Normally the only time the crossflow switch is needed is to correct a side to side fuel imbalance.

The 31A has wing tanks and a bag in the back. 99% of the time you Single Point (SP-Pressure unlike the HondaJet Single Point) and fill it all up.

In cruise open the gravity feed to trickle the bag into the wings (which feed the engines) and then pump the last 500 pounds or so in as desired. Jetpumps can be used to balance the wings L/R and you can pump back into the bag also (if you had to overwing fuel instead of SPPR).

On any given flight the two pilots, once airborn and cleaned up, have to decide who is going to get to flip the 1 or 2 switches that might could use flipped.

You're welcome Chris. You may have missed out on flying Lear Jets, but as other biz jets like the Citations evolved, their performance came up to the later Lear Jet line.

But I would say you missed out if you didn't get a chance to fly the early Lears, like the Lear 23 that just smoked the first Citation when it came out, but the performance difference has essentially evaporated in my opinion. A Lear 23 couldn't catch a Citation x in cruise, but the thrill of the early Lears was the acceleration and climb rate; nobody forgets their first ride in an early Lear. Same weight and same engines as the T-38, but without afterburners.

You're welcome Chris. You may have missed out on flying Lear Jets, but as other biz jets like the Citations evolved, their performance came up to the later Lear Jet line.

But I would say you missed out if you didn't get a chance to fly the early Lears, like the Lear 23 that just smoked the first Citation when it came out, but the performance difference has essentially evaporated in my opinion. A Lear 23 couldn't catch a Citation x in cruise, but the thrill of the early Lears was the acceleration and climb rate; nobody forgets their first ride in an early Lear. Same weight and same engines as the T-38, but without afterburners.

What’s the difference in range between a Lear 31A and 31A -ER? Also, how does it affect full fuel useful load?

Thanks,
Steve

The ER I fly is 4600 pounds. We can’t make it to Florida from the West Coast and neither can a plain 31a so in some ways it’s minor. Only flew the regular 31a once but it seemed to handle western states fine.

Several different MGTOW options on paperwork.
Hard to tell a difference between raped-ape performance and super-raped-ape performance. It’s always tons lighter than a 55!!