This deserved its own thread:


Presently favoring straight 560. Relatively inexpensive to get (~$1M), excellent runway usage numbers, big cabin, FL450, tickles 400 knots. Not exactly sure it has non stop west coast range in a headwind, though, need to run the numbers some more.

S550 an option but wheezy at altitude with the JT15D-4. S550 with Williams would be ideal, mongo range, speed, climb, but the Williams mafia scares me. Also, very rare and expensive. I can buy a lot of fuel for the 560 for the difference.

Everything else seems far behind. 501SP Eagle II is just not quite enough range, but has the advantage of being SP out of the box.

Pretty annoyed at the whole single pilot waiver thing. Makes no sense a CJ3/4, PC24, Premier can be SP and a 560 can't without a bunch of run around. The SPW system seems designed to make extra money for training centers. I keep wondering why there can't be a "real" STC that simply makes the planes SP like any of the others.

Was down at Simcom Orlando recently. They put me in the 550 full motion sim for fun. Did takeoff, clean and climb, some air work, and then right into an ILS to minimums. Piece of cake. The only hard part was getting a feel for the power setting in various phases, but that came quickly and I was right on speed and needles on the ILS. I'll have no trouble flying a jet.

Their prices were $15K for type rating and $9K for SPW. All can be done in sim and then I can go fly right away. I wouldn't be comfortable with that myself, so whether required or not, I would get a mentor for ~25 hours at least.

Won't be buying until 2017 at the earliest when I come back from Europe.

Mike C.

Awesome

Has having the MU2 been a part of growing your business to where you need and/or can support a jet?

Citation V is the best legacy jet out there.

Has panel flexibility, good range, cheap to buy.

Negatives, burns a lot of gas, cost to operate, resale.

What are your options for a private fuel farm or fuel truck in Evansville

Mike - I would concur that from your mission description, a 560 is an optimal choice. My 2 cents is that your 1M expectation might be a bit optimistic for a good airframe with solid engines. I would venture to say that after you're done with pre-buy and the whole purchase process you'll have spent closer to 1.5M. For the prebuy, by the way, I would strongly suggest a Phase 5 inspection - probably the cheapest P5 you'll do.

At any rate good luck - I look forward to reading more about this.

Sim profiles aren't the ones I worry about (sp). It's getting dumped out of 40k and making crossing restrictions and speeds while ATC is changing approaches/runways. Throw in a tight approach, tight fuel and a hold and I'm envisioning being maxed out just trying to program the fms and run the numbers. I've been there in a 20 series Learjet with two pilots and we were busy sob's.

I doubt I could handle SP with just 25 hours - probably 200 and I'd feel ok.

They rarely ask this much of me in the KA. When they do, it comes at me 130kts slower and I've got new nav boxes to help me deal with it. I also got those big props I can flatten out whenever I need to.

I'm flying a II and have some time in the V this year and your comments are right on. Usually mid 30s in the II; I've had the V to FL430. The II with an engine upgrade would be a nice plane. Of course, many of these have legacy avionics and some can be pretty expensive to upgrade. We looked at a II with a Bendix system and wanted dual Garmins. It was $70,000 because of what would have to be moved to lay out the new panel and where the connections were. I think for the price you mentioned, you'd be looking at mid-time or higher engine times.

Good luck. I'll enjoy following your search.

Best,

Dave

One thing to keep in mind if you do any more Euro trips is that the SPW for the 560 is not accepted in Europe or any other places in the world (as far as I understand). The exemption can only be granted in national airspace and it says so on waiver apparently. So anywhere else it becomes a 2 crew plane to be legal. That would be huge detriment to me if I were in your shoes.

That Piaggio P180 isn't looking so bad now, is it?

What would it take to get a V from EVV-LHR-EVV. Probably 5000 gallons? Copilots arent that expensive in comparison.

True, but it's not just that. No Canada, No Mexico, no Caribbean etc.

He would need to keep co-pilots available the entire time he is in Europe if he wants to fly around. And in Europe the co-pilot needs at least a SIC type rating for the type, not just a 61.55 signoff.

True, but it's not just that. No Canada, No Mexico, no Caribbean etc.

But is it fine because nobody knows or can tell the difference, or is it fine because the Mexican CAA says it's OK officially?

It helps if you have a good avionics setup for SP work.

Coupled VNAV on the FMS and AP lets the plane automatically fly STARS and meet crossing restrictions. A modern FMS will be aware of speed restrictions and warn to when to slow down. Pilot just needs to manage throttles.

Air data and fuel flow fed to the FMS to display fuel status on the MFD takes the stress out of knowing if a clearance can be accepted or not.