I need to fly with Mark. I've greased plenty of landings in jets, but never in a straight-leg Citation. I've gotten one to grease before the other comes slamming down, but more often than not it was just "bang". Stiffest gear I ever saw. If you can grease a straight-leg Citation on, you are indeed The Man.

I love my Baron

Jesse has been flying left seat on a trip from KSDL to KGON beyond. Today we had an early morning short trip from KGON to KCYX. I monitored Jesse but did nothing to help. He essentially acted as single pilot. Busy flight over busy airspace. I have it on video but he was flawless. Has the fever now.

Jesse is a very cautious pilot. Taking no chances with chemtrails.

Next time he remembers to remove his headset before putting on the mask!

Another excellent adventure with perfect weather.

After reflecting on our trip, I have some thoughts.

1. Weather is everything at this level. On this trip we flew mostly during the day and had essentially perfect weather enroute. Fuel planning and routing were easy. In these conditions, flying the Citation single pilot is a breeze and nothing but fun.

2. There is no substitute for experience. While I felt comfortable after 22 hours in the last month, I am aware of how much I am still working to fly the plane. I am starting to do a few things in the background, but the majority of tasks are still happening with some thought involved. It definitely feels better to be in front of the plane on an arrival, but I’d guess a hundred more hours would be necessary to feel like I’m wearing it and could handle some issues popping up along with weather while SP.

3. The 750 is a game changer. We flew a couple of legs on the east coast and having the ability to quickly load routes, or change them on the fly, significantly reduces workload and enables the single pilot.

4. Corporate pilots receive different treatment at FBOs. Sometimes I felt like we were getting better treatment than I am used to, but I also notice it can be the opposite. Some folks look at you like the help while they hustle for your pax. Attitudes vary but it was interesting.

5. The Citation flies and lands a whole lot like a 421C. The wing and the gear feel the same, which gives me a great advantage in the pattern. We were messing with the GTN visual arrival procedure and trying to get it to capture some approaches. It left us high and fast a few times, but the 421 experience gave me the sight picture to know how far we could take it and still get down and stopped.

As for the gear, I had a couple of nice landings (one long and one stopped in 3,000). On our final day I was going to grease it for the trifecta and I just didn’t. Speed was perfect, pitch was right, but the mains just jolted on. The straight let 421 would do this also every so often and it was really annoying as it didn’t seem to matter how much experience you gained. My theory is the plane has to be perfectly straight or you get an exaggerated thud.

6. Dont rush. On the last landing we were getting pushed by a Citation on final behind us but I wanted to roll to the end to the FBO. In addition, as we rolled up to the FBO we were ready to offload pax right away and get them down the road. Consequently, I missed the speed brakes on the checklist in the hurry to offload and we ended up needing to motor an engine later to drop them. 20 extra seconds would not have mattered. Lesson learned (again - I already knew that one).

One way to ensure this works out when flying Pax, without making the them feel delayed, is to clear the runway and clean it all up and then be ready for immediate shutdown and offload at the FBO. The roll right to the FBO created the hiccup.

7. There is just no way to fly this thing without significant head down time in the cockpit. Setting power, watching speed, reroutes, checklists, etc all happen at lower altitudes where traffic is hanging out. You aren’t flying by feel, so you are always on “instruments” of some kind. I’ll keep this in mind when flying in the vicinty of jets going forward. If I fly SP, even bringing a body along to look at the window would add value.

8. Jets are addicting. I find myself reshaping my views on aircraft.

JJ,

Careful, careful, careful MH is adept at spending others money in a HURRY!!! He smiles while doing it too.... Boys and their toys as Mom always used to say.

Enjoy the flights and recaps. Keep it up. So much fun learning a new aircraft. Will be hard to slow down in the FL's when in the 421.

Well said Jesse!

Thanks for the invaluable insights JJ.

Jesse J landing at KCXY

[youtube]https://youtu.be/Dz5DFd-Cobc[/youtube]


His "rough" landing at KMLB

[youtube]https://youtu.be/GaE9Y9nLhZQ[/youtube]

You’ll learn to love that AOA donut on the HSI!

Do yo think it behaved correctly? Was pegged right until the last second then he nailed it. Sorry if my language hurts anybody's feelings.

That sounds F’d up. But you never know. I mean Jesse is da man.

Watch the very end of the second video and you can see it.