Over the years the Mrs. has learned a lot about airplanes, TBO's, TT, DOC inspections, annuals, glass vs. legacy panels and really good auto pilots and of course the bills that need to be paid.

She was browsing The Controller this morning and dreaming of CJ/CJ1/CJ1+. While sitting by the pool enjoying another perfect southern Florida day, she pointed out that many of them don't list engine times or they are close to HSI's, or OH's, but have recent paint or panel upgrades.

So my question for the BT brain trust is and Chip, is this something new? There's one airframe that really caught her attention but looks like it's right at 2500 hours. With the backlog of parts and shops, is this a way for someone to dump their plane and put the burden on someone else?

Also, many she showed me had boat loads of interior and exterior and panel upgrades but no engine HSI's, etc. Wouldn't the investment be better in the engine.
Just don't know enough about that market to understand.

I konw there are a lot of factors going into all this, but just curious what others may think

If the engines are on the manufacturer program, Williams TAP Blue/Elite in this case, it makes nearly no difference to me the engine TT, SMOH, or HSI. Assuming it's fully paid up it's Williams problem. In the past 14 months we've put a Pratt and Williams FJ44 through HSI on the program. Obviously there were no additional/unexpected costs, the Pratt came back in 3 weeks, Williams was scheduled for 3 weeks but turned into about 6 due to parts shortages. The downtime is really the only downside to buying a plane near a major interval.

If they aren't on program, not fully paid up, or on a 3rd party that's a different story. I'd want to ensure I'm heavily compensated for the financial risk I'm about to inherit.

2500TT for a CJ/CJ1/CJ1+ is considered pretty low time, I think that'd be a good option assuming the engines are on TAP fully paid.

For your own knowledge I'd like to know when the HSI was last done, if at all, and the current scheduled intervals for that serial number engine. I've seen early SN's at 1500/3000 hours, but most are at 3500, 4000, or even 5000 hour intervals for the O/H, Check 4 as Williams calls it.

We have done numerous CJ transactions and manage 6 of them.

-The Citation Jet Exchange

Hey Sal,

Corey covered it! If the ad says 2500TT it is assumed the total time on the engines is that same and if on programs the HSI isn’t considered a value point. Though as he said, it’s good to know because of downtime concerns.

The add should say either TAP Blue or TAP Elite, if Elite you’ll want to budget for upgrading to Blue, I’d use $50k for budget purposes and then get Williams to quote it when you get close on an airplane.

Sal,
I own an operate a CJ and never considered the CJ1. The extra weight of the avionics and interior of the CJ1 doesn’t buy any extra useful load. Also much prefer Garmin avionics over the Collins proline/universal FMS setup. The garminized CJ offers better utility than the mustang and can be put on low utilization maintenance programs to stretch out the inspections.

If i was seriously looking at nice CJ1+, I would try and stretch into a CJ2 and do the new full Garmin panel including autopilot, but we’re getting into more money.

Wishing for other Williams options but programs is the reality most of us live with.