Recently I’ve been asked by a family friend to help him look for an aircraft to get him around for business. He’s a non pilot and has no interest in getting his license so he’d be riding in back. He’s a bigger guy (played as lineman for Alabama) and would be riding with 1-2 other people. Mission we will say is ~500 nm with most trips at or under that and then the occasional trip that’s longer. He doesn’t want to bust the budget on maintenance but he is buying the aircraft with 2-3 other spinal surgeons so money isn’t all that tight. Any thoughts on where to look? I’ve thought of Conquest, Commander, or maybe even Beechjet but am open to other ideas

How much will he be flying?

Tell him to charter first.

Pony up 750k each and they can get a TBM 850, KingAir 90 or Citation Mustang.

58 Baron. Workhorse, cost effective.

TBM 850

Mitsubishi 300 Diamond( $200K and up) or Beechjet 400($750K to 1million). Safety advantage of 2 pilots. Surgeons shouldn’t be flying at night, mountains, weather, etc single pilot. Available pilots are generally young and inexperienced or old with good experience. The airlines are hiring the rest. Either case, I recommend 2 pilot operation. Could charter a bit to see if cabin size, fuel burn, etc is a good trade off. The Diamond is what I call a throw away jet in terms of depreciation,insurance, maintenance. My employer recently sold a Mu 300 for $200K and replaced it with a Beechjet 400 for 1 million. Seven passengers, 430 knots, and a fuel burn of 1500 lbs the first hour and 1000 lbs per hour thereafter. The Mu 300 was very well maintained with 750 hours remaining on engines. Need a good aircraft salesman to sort through the thousands of variables and trade offs.My 2 cents worth.

Sold, show me an (airworthy, reasonable time on the engine) TBM 850 for 750 AMUs and I'll do everything I can to try and buy it.

Start with a 58 Baron. Super easy to buy right, maintain, hire pilots and sell. Get Neal to find them a nice one. If the Baron suits their fancy they can move up easily.

If that's not swanky enough, then I'd say a King Air or Cessna 425 - see above.

Maybe NYC is different, but I once tried to get a charter quote from SUS-AIZ. 95nm.

Round trip to drop us Friday afternoon, return Sunday afternoon.

They wanted $4K (in a Navajo.) Lunacy, sheer lunacy.

Jim hit’s the nail on the head. These surgeons need a limo that flys, and is as close to 100% safe and reliable as they can get. Agree with the Beechjet or CJ and 2 pilots 100%.

Conquest!

If the mission is ~500nm with non pilots in the back paying the bills then you need a pressurized airplane. The comfort and quiet of a pressurized airplane are mandatory for non pilots riding in the back. Having decided on that the next decision is turbine or piston. Again, the OP said the people writing the checks are non pilots so I would say turbine because non pilots aren't going to understand why they can't depart with a rough mag, fouled plug, or any of the other MX gremlins that go along with high performance piston engines. Plus turbines generally go from inspection to inspection with minimal attention whereas complex pistons tend to need more care and feeding. That also makes turbines a better choice for non pilots who don't consider airplane maintenance a labor of love. The OP didn't say how many hours per year but let's assume it's around 100/yr. With a budget of $750K they can buy a pretty nice turbine that won't cost a whole lot more to operate than a high performance pressurized piston twin. The next factor is hiring pilots. Assuming the owners aren't going to pay a pilot to be on salary then they need to pick an airplane that has a big pool of qualified pilots which pretty much means King Air. Its the most expensive to operate and the least efficient but for $750K you can get a nice 90 model of some sort which will fulfill the mission easily and there are pilots on every corner. It's easy to fly, easy to maintain, easy to insure and has a super comfortable cabin. If the KA op expenses are too high then I would say either Cheyenne or Conquest I. Those are less expensive to own especially if the annual hours are closer to 100 rather than 200 or 300. A short body MU-2 would be great but there are not enough contract pilots around. Same goes with a twin commander 690.

Decision #1: Contract pilot or employee pilot

Contract pilot means someone you pay on a day or trip basis and you can select from a pool. You want to buy a common aircraft type with lots of pilots available in your area. That usually means King Air or Citation for turbine equipment, but perhaps another type is common in your area. Beyond the pilot, you also have to manage the airplane (get it maintained, manage databases, pay the bills, clean it, etc). Day pilots typically don't do those things.

If you hire a pilot full time, then he can take care of managing the airplane and flying it for you. You can then chose a lesser common type (Commander, Conquest, MU2, Merlin, Beechjet, Lear, etc). You will pay for the pilot's type school. You *may* be able to arrange such a person part time, but then schedule conflicts arise.

Decision #2: Maintenance provider

It is completely reasonable to select an aircraft type based on the local availability of good maintenance shops for that type. I happen to live in an area with a good number of quality MU2 shops. If I lived where this wasn't true, I'd be inclined to buy another type.

Decision #3: Aircraft type

Your mission screams turbine, pressurized. The owners want reliable, safe transportation. This means turboprop or light jet to me.

That all being said, your mission just sounds like a Citation 501SP with original engines. It will fly happily on 500 nm missions in almost any weather, jets are very safe, very common for day pilots and maintenance, can be flown single pilot. it is reasonably fast such that 500 nm is a fairly pleasant trip, under 2 hours.

Purchase cost is $300-700K depending on quality, engine times, avionics. Estimate about $1200/hour operating cost. A 500 nm round trip would cost roughly $4,000 in airplane usage, about $4/mile. Pilot costs are on top of that.

If that's too expensive, then King Airs are probably out as well as they really aren't much less per mile. To get much less cost per mile, you have to look at the fast TPE331 powered twins such as Conquest II, MU2, Commander, Merlin. You can approach costs just under $3 per mile in that class.

If you need to get below $2 per mile, then you are looking at piston singles, say an SR22. Sounds like your buyers are not in that class both financially or physically.

If you want a bigger cabin, and can afford a second pilot (which isn't double, copilot rates are much less), then a Citation III might be a choice. Not very expensive to get, but some cost to operate. Probably in the $6/mile range.

Mike C.

Meridian!

Sticking to the mission and budget stated, nothing would touch the offerings of a King Air. For all the "touting" I see on BT about "other" turboprops, the market recognized the King Air as "King", a long time ago.

So, for once, I am a Beechnut.

Jgreen