Our company just took delivery of our new Phenom 300 in August in Brazil.
(I couldnt go because I was overseas on bsiness )
We also just sold our C2 (a money pit).
As you can imagine with a bunch of engineers on staff and being a very conservative company, we did all the spreadsheets, anaylsis, etc.
For our typical mission, it wasnt even close. Fuel burn, range, residual value all played a huge role)
My buddy owns a Mustang he picked after his type rating in Wichita (Xmas present to himself). He now lusts after a Phenom like ours.....
The moral of this story, in my mind: the lusting and quest for the"next" plane, car boat, bike, probably never ends....
Since I only just bought my Bo and dont even have 1hr solo in it and am spending many AMU's upgrading it, I'm sticking with this one for a long time. Also decided years I ago that I now have the best car and bike for my purposes, and just buy a new car every two years just like it and bike every four. My biggest decisions: which color combination. See, simple.
Happy Hunting!
FWIW, even though our Phenom is single pilot rated, we use our corporate pilot plus a contract SIC up until now. Will continue to do so for al least 100 more hours. There is a lot going on up there and its all happening FAST.

That's probably because most owner pilots don't buy things like CJ3's. They're usually chartered.

+1.

or a II-SP Stallion with a G1000

Rick,

I'd bet a lot of the two pilot requirements are driven by money... insurance. It cost more to fix or replace and expensive jet or executive.

The jet really isn't any harder to fly, in fact, a lot easier than some. A piston pressurized twin is probably among the hardest to fly ... just more things to do and less performance.

Heck, a competent pilot could hop in a 747-400 and fly it solo for 5000 miles easily..... and even handle a few problems thrown at him. But he couldn't because of regs, insurance, company policy, etc.... And there is the issue that it just has more "parts" and systems that need monitoring... but the basic flying is easy.

The long trip into weather would be difficult for a single pilot in ANY plane... but would probably be a lot easier in a VLJ than in your Bonanza.

A friend was dry leasing a PC12 from a local company ... they decided to look at the Phenom. Seemed to think the 300 instead of the 100 was the way to go. Some more money for MUCH greater capability. They bought a Phenom 300.

Well I am dirt bag jealous over the whole conversation but am enjoying the input. I think the 300 is awesome on paper with its capabilities. Saw one fly direct from Canada to England or Ireland. 450 kts? Give me a break please.

Jason,

It is not as fun as it might seem. Flying a jet requires a ton more time outside of the cockpit. More time in school, more time managing the airplane, more time planning trips. Some of this time is fun but a lot of it is just plain work. Preflights & checklists are probably 4X the number of items and you'll do a lot more "procedures" in the cockpit as well.

When I had the V Tail, I had all kinds of pilot approaching me to say hi and chat about my airplane. It was so cool to hear their stories and things they knew about a V35TC. Now that I have a P baron, nobody talks to me anymore.... The P is not really a "fly for fun" airplane and most of the people who have similar airplanes bought them to save time rather than for the "airport experience" - so in other words, the people who can relate to a P don't really hang out at the airport like piston single guys do (or at least they are far less common). I miss that part about the V Tail.

Having two pilots up front is pretty nice and I'd be surprised if you really want to be alone up there after you go through training and IOE. Workload in a jet can get very busy and I'm sure you could train to the point where you can handle it but you may decide you don't want to work that hard. It is so nice to get up, go pee or grab a cup-a-joe or just check on the passengers - pretty hard to do that with just one pilot...

There is absolutely, positively no way any of you will talk me into 2 pilots. I fly to deserted islands, get naked and run down the beach. Now if the 2nd pilot is blonde, 6ft. tall, skinny with big boobs I'm on board. But a 50 year old, fat bald guy named Bob ain't gonna cut it. I don't want to take care of Bob or fly Bob back home etc. That to me is more work than anything. Managing other peoples schedules is the biggest chore I can think of. Forget it! Airplanes are about freedom. I want to land and roll.

Of course the Phenom 300 is better than the 100. It's 3 times the money too.

Yes ... and while 2 pilot operation has always seemed a major drawback of most of the jets for me because of the expense, once you are paying that kind of dough to fly the jet, paying for a pilot and La Quinta etc. becomes just another incidental cost. I'd imagine all in costs for most jets are at $2000/hr +

Mike

John and Jason,

I agree after reading Jason's posts over the last couple years that this will be very different. Calculating TOLD, Vspeeds, and %power on every flight is cool for the nerd pilot (likely me), but it is still work. In my area, the jet departures are sent way out of the way to get to the Jroutes and setup for arrivals.

Even in the P and 421, I have learned that every flight is to be taken seriously and if you do that there is a lot more work before the flight.

Two buddies have moved to Citations and loved the move. One bought a newer CJ1. Its cool, but the 421 cockpit is more comfortable and there is more room in the back. For my regular trips it would save me about 30 minutes and cost 4-5x as much. The range is the same or worse.

Obviously its a whole different world and going nearly 400ktas ain't bad. The drawback I see is losing control over where you are going. I fly high, I fly low, I go where I want and the time in the air is my happy place. In a jet you go where ATC tells you and its all about getting there.

Don't get me wrong, I may make a similar move someday but I will never give up piston aircraft that offer so much fun and flexibility.

I like the G1000 CII Stallion idea and keep the G36TN.

Best,

Stopped in ABQ the other day to pick up a pair of pants a friend left at Cutter the day before. As soon as I parked, up pulls an Eclipse and a CJ-6. Out pops a middle age guy and a 30 something girlfriend.

This picture plus the fuel bill comparison (plus my girlfriend) all remind me that I'm absolutely happy as can be with my A36.

Jason,

I doubt that "bald Bob" wants to see you naked either.... I was mountain biking in Lake Tahoe a few weeks ago and saw 20 naked runners (guys) come by us on the trail - I would like to forget I ever saw that.

I won't try to talk you into it but I will be interested in your opinion about the workload if you go through with it. Seems you'll probably need to fly with somebody for a number of hours anyhow.

You'll be coordinating a number of peoples schedules even if you fly alone. Maintenance, fueling, moving it in & out of the hanger, power cart, catering, cleaning, deicing, etc. Things creep in to the process like fuel farm, tug (and tug maintenance & fueling), hangar, hanger office, hanger kitchen, hanger bathrooms, hanger cleaning...

I guess you could do without a lot of those things but most people with jets have them. I've seen some of them even hire a girl with big boobs to coordinate it all.....

Jesse, when you buy that jet, dibs on buying your 421!

Amen - couldn't agree more

WRT single pilot ops, my first week in the CJ, which is by far the simplest jet you'll ever fly, we had a complete hydraulic system failure requiring a gear blow-down and no flap landing, all while coordinating with ATC for an emergency landing at DFW. This with two pilots with thousands of hours between them. Would this have gone well with a low-time, single pilot at the controls? Maybe, maybe not. Throw in some weather and a low fuel situation, which is always a risk in the CJ, and it could get exciting. The thing about a jet is they're easy to fly when everything is working, it's when things break that it gets challenging.