Citation 525

There’s a lot to like about the Phenom,the HondaJet, the Citation 550 / 560, the Premier and the Beechjet.

But, overall the 525 series is hard to beat.

You can literally start out your jet life in a legacy Citation Jet and progress through models adding speed and capabilities, while maintaining the same type rating, utilizing the same maintenance providers and with very little change in operating cost.

Acquisition cost? That’s a little different, you’re talking $800,000.00 to $8,000,000.00!

These airplanes are so (relative to other models) easy to fly and maintain that they have literally set the standard for light jet operations.

Speaking of maintenance, between the excellent service provided by Textron Service Centers / Mobile Service and the wide spread availability of quality maintenance from other shops, no other line of aircraft is as easy or economical to maintain.

What are your likes / dislikes?

I guess this is a matter of opinion but I'd take a $600K 1700nm, 415kt Citation V over any of these other choices.

If paying cash there’s a real good argument here.

Be careful trying to stretch out 1700nm

Quite capable birds and not much to dislike. I was just offered the ability to buy block time in a fairly well equipped CJ. 100 hrs for $1800/hr dry. I think I'll stick with my SR22T for now...

Does a CJ1 (M2) airframe fit in this T hangar? How about with the active winglets?

We already knew that.

Does a CJ1 (M2) airframe fit in this T hangar? How about with the active winglets?

A Mustang will, but not sure about the CJ. The limiting dimension is the distance from the nose to the inboard trailing edge of the wing. It might be more than 22' on a CJ. That's the only thing that would need to be verified. Otherwise, it fits the other dimensions you show.

I edited my previous post. I found some of the CJ dimensions.

Thanks. Kind of what I thought.

Now, back to our program. The best light jet is...

All of Chips' positions on BT revolve around "generalizations" (light jet). Even the CJ line has several different iterations. "Light Jet" means a lot of different things. An M2 and a CJ4 have nothing to do with one another yet both would be labelled as "light jet" by Chip.

It's all very misleading.

Specifics drive buying decisions. Nobody shopping CJ4's is looking at M2's.... both Light jets. Nobody calls a broker and says "hi, I'm in the market for a light jet". That's like walking in the Cadillac dealership and telling the salesman "hi, I'm in the market for a car".

Embraer covers the whole SP market with 2 jets. Cessna should be doing the same thing and I think they're headed that way. Why? because it's more profitable to do it that way.

I wouldn't want to speculate what Textron/Cessna will do with the 525 in the future, but the idea of consolidation would make a lot of sense, even outside the Textron boardroom.

The existing fleet is mostly iterations of improvements. At any point there was only 3 airplanes to choose from if buying new. Maybe a 4th one if you counted the 510, but that's not a 525. Beyond the CJ's is where I get confused in their lineup.

Like them or not, the service network by Textron has a lot of value, especially when AOG. Even legacy aircraft operators get good treatment.

I'm a fan of the Phenom 300, but the aircraft was really designed for high utilization and the maint schedule shows that with most items due at 600hrs or 12 mos. There are quite a few Phenom 100 and 300's getting 600 hr inspection with only 100 hrs +or- annually.

The Honda has been a disappointment. Sure it works, but it should have been noticeably better in range. Everything else was a known quantity, find a way to get more fuel on it from the start.

I love the PC24, but admission is high, and it really is a mid-size airplane.

You'd rather own an airplane designed for "low utilization"?