19 Nov 2025, 11:28 [ UTC - 5; DST ]
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Post subject: Re: Aerostars  Posted: 14 Apr 2022, 11:38 |
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Joined: 02/09/09
Posts: 6524
Post Likes: +3238
Company: RNP Aviation Services
Location: Owosso, MI (KRNP)
Aircraft: 1969 Bonanza V35A
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Username Protected wrote: Unless someone can show me better, I think this is the record groundspeed...370kts in level flight and 420 in the descent. I believe Jim Christy had a picture about 100 pages back with a faster one. The best I could do was 367 in cruise and 397 in the decent one day...
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Post subject: Re: Aerostars Posted: 14 Apr 2022, 13:50 |
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Joined: 11/06/10
Posts: 12191
Post Likes: +3075
Company: Looking
Location: Outside Boston, or some hotel somewhere
Aircraft: None
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Username Protected wrote: Guess which one I bought  Tim The Cirrus... (kidding aside...didn't you sell your Aerostar, and end up with a Cirrus? Would love to know more about your "decision tree" on how you ended up with that decision)
Yes, back in a Cirrus. This time in a partnership with a G1 SR22.
When I bought the Aerostar there were two missions for the jump in plane capability.
- First was work, I used an SR20 on a regular basis for regional meetings, but was UL, speed, range and weather limited.
- My first wife also had motion sickness, so when stuck lower in the SR20, she would feel sick.
After selling the company, and my first wife passed away, I no longer had the mission. But I still loved the plane.
In 2014 I was living TN, a few hundred yards from KSCX, and I had a meeting at the Knoxville Hilton the next morning which is in walking distance from KTYS. So I went to the hangar to check fuel and do a flight plane. Full power takeoff, climb over a mountain range, land. I would have about 2 minutes in cruise, total flight time less than 15 minutes. I figured I would burn over 20 gallons each way on this trip, while my car would burn two gallons one way. Now the Aerostar would take 45 minutes to pull out, taxi and preflight and fly for 15 minutes, so all told one hour. The car was a two hour drive with half of it on windy mountain roads. So from just a fuel perspective, the Aerostar was at least $280 bucks, and the car $24.
The fact that I did that calculation in my head after two years and 300 hours, I knew I cared too much about the cost. At which point, it likely would be only a matter of time before I made a dumb choice if I kept the Aerostar.
However, if I ever win the lottery, I am getting another one!
Tim
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Post subject: Re: Aerostars Posted: 15 Apr 2022, 11:51 |
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Joined: 12/17/13
Posts: 6652
Post Likes: +5963
Location: Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA
Aircraft: Aerostar Superstar 2
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I think the Spirit of Kai Tak, a 700P, averaged 279kts from London to Sydney. Fastest King Air C90 wa like 253kts or so. So when you don't mind burning 50gal/hr in fuel, they can really get going. https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/its-whats-up-front-that-counts/Man, all this talk about Aerostars makes me want one again!
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Without love, where would you be now?
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Post subject: Re: Aerostars Posted: 15 Apr 2022, 12:08 |
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Joined: 11/06/10
Posts: 12191
Post Likes: +3075
Company: Looking
Location: Outside Boston, or some hotel somewhere
Aircraft: None
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Username Protected wrote: Man, all this talk about Aerostars makes me want one again! I still want one again... Tim
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Post subject: Re: Aerostars Posted: 15 Apr 2022, 12:08 |
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Joined: 03/23/11
Posts: 14640
Post Likes: +6797
Location: Frederick, MD
Aircraft: V35A TC
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me too....  Username Protected wrote: Man, all this talk about Aerostars makes me want one again! I still want one again... Tim
_________________
Views represented here are my own.....and do not in anyway reflect my employer's position.
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Post subject: Re: Aerostars Posted: 15 Apr 2022, 12:20 |
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Joined: 08/18/11
Posts: 321
Post Likes: +290
Company: American Aviation, Inc.
Location: Hayden Lake, ID
Aircraft: C90,340,PA31T,PC-12
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Username Protected wrote: Unless someone can show me better, I think this is the record groundspeed...370kts in level flight and 420 in the descent. I believe Jim Christy had a picture about 100 pages back with a faster one. The best I could do was 367 in cruise and 397 in the decent one day...
The best ground speed I have seen in a piston Aerostar was on a trip to Tulsa from Coeur d' Alene. I was cruising at FL 250 at 65% in Kai Tak with 100 knots on the tail for a ground speed of 350 Knots.
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Post subject: Re: Aerostars Posted: 15 Apr 2022, 12:56 |
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Joined: 12/17/13
Posts: 6652
Post Likes: +5963
Location: Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA
Aircraft: Aerostar Superstar 2
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Doug, I did mention this earlier in this long thread, but one of the nicest things about an Aerostar is that if you get a rapid/slam dunk descent by ATC, you just push the yoke over and take the speed. On every other aircraft, you need to pull back on the throttles, speed brake or she'll red arc, but the Aerostar can just take it with that narrow yellow arc and high Vne. I can't tell you how many times I've come in over my home airport in the Aerostar, high and fast, and just banked into a 60 degree turn at 200kt IAS and joined the downwind. It's like being in an F-16, soooo much fun.
Nothing flies like an Aerostar.
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Post subject: Re: Aerostars Posted: 15 Apr 2022, 13:13 |
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Joined: 12/30/15
Posts: 1819
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Location: Charlotte
Aircraft: Avanti-Citabria
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Username Protected wrote:
Nothing PISTON flies like an Aerostar.
Small correction Adam, I joined BT because I was going to buy a P Baron. THIS thread along with Forrest generous time and a flight in his airplane along with many many conversations with Jim Christy helped me change my mind to a beautiful Aerostar I flew 400 hours. Was thinking about moving up to turbine possibly a B200 or Cheyenne IIXL but once again someone on BT,  can 't remember who, started another A thread. Happy Good Friday
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I wanna go phastR.....and slowR
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Post subject: Re: Aerostars Posted: 15 Apr 2022, 13:43 |
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Joined: 11/25/16
Posts: 1982
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Location: KSBD
Aircraft: C501
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Username Protected wrote: Doug, I did mention this earlier in this long thread, but one of the nicest things about an Aerostar is that if you get a rapid/slam dunk descent by ATC, you just push the yoke over and take the speed. On every other aircraft, you need to pull back on the throttles, speed brake or she'll red arc, but the Aerostar can just take it with that narrow yellow arc and high Vne. I can't tell you how many times I've come in over my home airport in the Aerostar, high and fast, and just banked into a 60 degree turn at 200kt IAS and joined the downwind. It's like being in an F-16, soooo much fun.
Nothing flies like an Aerostar. Adam you're so right. The other day I was flying into Harrisburg, PA and I think ATC forget about me....late radio call for the descent. Air was smooth so I didn't touch ANYTHING except the pitch command wheel. Airspeed stabilized at at 240kias and downhill I went. Levelled off at 4500', slowed down, zero drama. As I was rocketing along I realized that I was within 10 knots of busting the speed limit...IN A PISTON TWIN. Gotta love an Aerostar.
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Post subject: Re: Aerostars Posted: 15 Apr 2022, 16:41 |
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Joined: 02/04/10
Posts: 1590
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Company: Northern Aviation, LLC
Aircraft: C45H, Aerostar, T28B
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Not quite as good as Jim's 250 true at FL250, but this was 55% at FL230 heading down the Alaska/Canada coast last winter. I used the free push from Mother Nature to scratch the fuel stop out a few hundred more miles. Attachment: IMG_2961.jpg
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Post subject: Re: Aerostars Posted: 15 Apr 2022, 17:26 |
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Shove the nose over and wait for ATC to tell you to slow down because you are overtaking the Jet in front of you...
Also when filing for a pop up I've had them enter Aerostar as Arrow...
Which usually gets a comment a little latter into the flight with some thing like:
How are you doing XXX knots in an arrow...
Also if you call the tower with the nose shoved over at 250 Knots GS inbound and give an accurate position report they will tell you to call approach....and by the time you have approach your in the class D....
Done this more than once descending into someplace VFR.
I've taken to saying crossing into your class D in less than XX seconds.
Its a whole new world of fun!
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Post subject: Re: Aerostars Posted: 15 Apr 2022, 17:45 |
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Joined: 01/08/17
Posts: 462
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Aircraft: Aerostars, Debonair
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Username Protected wrote: Unless someone can show me better, I think this is the record groundspeed...370kts in level flight and 420 in the descent. I believe Jim Christy had a picture about 100 pages back with a faster one. The best I could do was 367 in cruise and 397 in the decent one day...
I did 413 knots groundspeed in the descent at the end of Denver to York PA nonstop in a stock 165 gal 601P (N90473) - 5 hours enroute at 200 knots true with 25-26 gph total burn. Groundspeeds in level flight were 325 to 335 consistently from Nebraska east. Looked down in the descent and saw 390 knots GS - figured it might be one of my only chances to see 400+ knots GS. Pushed the nose over and set my personal record.
That was in the days before the phone to take a picture unfortunately!
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Post subject: Re: Aerostars Posted: 16 Apr 2022, 09:34 |
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Joined: 02/06/18
Posts: 1051
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Aircraft: Piper PA-32R 300
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Username Protected wrote: You jerks are bad for my checkbook.
"Get a simple 601A/B" I said... "You're solo or only a +1 so you don't need the 680 or 700," I said...
Now I'm thinking "if I wait for get paid for this project, I can stroke a bigger check for a Superstar 700" (that I am eyeing)
This thread is a bad influence. Although the super-nice Aerostars are creeping up on basic turboprop territory (if you know how to look), and since I want to pretend my penis is bigger than it actually is... nearly every pilot wants to drink Jet A at one point in their life.
(I hope Jim doesn't ban me... I didn't actually call anyone a peni$)
But damn I now want a Machen Superstar 700.. which I "need" about as much as I need another ex-wife... Doug, now that you are up to your eyeballs in this, I suggest you go back and watch "American Made" again. The scenes with the A* are a hoot and almost as eye popping as the cash being hidden and buried.
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Ron
"It rubs the lotion on it's skin"
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