Congrats Jon. I hope you like yours as much as we have liked ours.

Congrats, Jon. That’s a beautiful looking plane and an amazing panel. I look forward to reading more of your posts to this thread!

Jon, congrats on the plane !!!!!

Congratulations , we are looking at purchasing something to fly regionally out of Houston and advocating for this versus some other jet turbine options.

It seems like upgrade of choice for the mitts owners

Once you get used to high wing loaded planes it’s tough to go back to bouncing around.

Flew 7 people 1300 nm at fl390 yesterday. Nice to look down on the storms rather than picking though them.

If you need a pilot I would pay my own way to be able to fly a P180

If you need a pilot I would pay my own way to be able to fly a P180

Jon,

Congratulations on your new plane! It looks great.

Daniele,
Do you know anything about the gravel kits.
What I know is it is basically like a mud flap for front tires.
Can I still buy one? Any idea on cost?
I have a bee in my bonnet to visit Baffin Island.
Pond Inlet has 4,000ft gravel runway.

Jon,
Congrats! Hope you love your new Italian lady as much as my wife and I love ours.

Anthony,
As to long range cruise power settings. Every time I try for a bit it seems like speed just goes down 15-20 knots and lbs/NM stays same. Obviously will be difficult in a headwind.
Have you found a power setting/altitude that works?

Brad,

I'm not very familiar with the gravel kit, and I believe not too many were sold.
I know that is basically a plate to be installed behind the nose gear wheels.
There are two SB available, one for the Dowty and one for the new Magnaghi .
In my personal opinion the former may be of difficult availability but you'd better ask Piaggio Customer Support directly.
As far as I can tell, installation needs just few hours.

Re:LRC - the book numbers are fairly accurate for my plane. I have found that dragging it up to or above FL390 usually works best as the LRC and max power graphs converge. If memory serves .84 nm/lb is best you can do in still air.

I have used 170ias as a good rule of thumb long range speed. It’s a touch faster than book recommends but specific fuel consumption is really close to what chart shows. I have only used it a few times.

I fly 1300nm trips a lot. I can do them into the wind in up tk about 25kt headwind. LRC never seems to help much on headwind days.

I have been step climbing a lot lately which I find works well. Climb to FL370 for first hour then go up from there. You can program into FF and I have found it quite accurate. Used on a flight last week and it was spot on.

Nice cupholder.

I've been able to fly 1208 NM a number of times into up to 40 knots of wind landing with 500-550 lbs. or so. I haven't used the long range cruise table to set power but generally just set power to not exceed ITT of 800 degrees and then tweak back from there as required. I generally have to go to 38-40 to do that. Luckily, coming out of OKC I don't get step climbed, or if I do, I get the next climb before level off.

I often also ask to stay high longer than center initially asks for which may require a gating change coming into SF airspace but so far not had an issue. The plane will do a 5 degree descent very nicely. My point is that range has, often, as much to do with controllers and what you negotiate as the plane's capability.

I've also learned that you have to take forecast and predicted winds with a grain of salt. Generally, adverse winds west of the Rockies are worse than before for example. So, I always plot fuel diversion option(s) and set a decision point in advance.

One of the things I've been looking at more recently as fuel prices have climbed is the relatively large cost savings (in pounds of fuel not dollars) for a change of 2,000 feet of altitude. Often that changes fuel burn 150 pounds or so. That saves potentially $125 in fuel for the leg for a 5 minute time penalty. While that seems attractive at first glance total costs for the plane run about $1,500/hour (not counting interest and depreciation which add another real cost we don't like to think about). So, if block fuel runs $550/hr and you save $125 by climbing a bit but you add $120 in total costs by going slightly slower. So, faster is better and fastest is whatever you can do without a fuel stop (which obviously blows cost calculations out of the water).

I am exploring LRC to allow me to get non stop to Bermuda as well as a possible trip to northern Canada. I can get to Bermuda no problem as trip is just over 800 miles. I need to be able to get there with enough fuel to make alternate which is back in North Carolina. Stopping at Elizabeth city to top off on the way is a known. A tad of a Phun sucker.
My friend that flys for a major reminded me.
Do NOT begin descent until you confirm airport is open and clear.

As to fuel prices last June I paid $7.10 for 100 gallons at Telluride to top off and be able to fly non stop back to Charlotte. Never though I would now be paying $7.10 gallon at my home airport.

Agree with Tony. LRC to save money overall might not work out on a calculator.