I still lease two C550's. About 15 hours of trips coming up next two weeks. I will post some stories/pix/vids.

Looking forward to your views on the Astra.

By all appearances it look like a great value.

Having boots is a little weird but after thinking about it I doubt it will matter.

It's flies at more typical jet speeds and has great range.

I spent an night in Goose Bay during my Atlantic crossing last year and had the good fortune to meet a local pilot who gave me a tour of the town, including the seaplane airport. He owned an FBO somewhere else in the Great White North was in Goose Bay with an Astra he was running as a charter plane. He had lots of good things to say about the range, reliability, running costs and purchase price. He was getting good economics out of operating one. That cabin is in another league. That is a ton of plane for the money, assuming cost of ownership doesn’t bankrupt you
Mark, I’d be interested to know what the engine program costs per hour, if your hourly cost is including those?
It does seem like looking at what older aircraft are still popular as working aircraft, does give some indications on what would be good to own for a high utilization owner.

MSP is ~$640/hr for the pair. Plus ~40k per year for the RC avionics program. With the MSP minimum hours you are looking at minimum $135,000/year program costs (if you choose to be on them).

You're big on them huh Erwin?

The plane is perfect for an owner that does 250 hours a year. That way all the inspections fit into their 4 year program. There are no calendar items on that plane other than the phase that is every 4 years. In theory, you could park the plane for 3 years and 11 months and still be good to go.

And fyi, most pilot I know in the Astra series that have had them for 10 years have only used the boots less than a handful of times, they didn’t really need it, they just used it because there was some ice.

I still lease two C550's. About 15 hours of trips coming up next two weeks. I will post some stories/pix/vids.