I also wanted to say that Mark is an excellent teacher. He is very comfortable in the airplane, flies a ton, and it shows. We didn’t need long/rigid discussions about how it would come together in the cockpit, he just facilitated that as we went and it worked very well in my opinion.

Thanks again Mark.

Great trip report, gentlemen.


Good job teaching, Mark.

Specific to the issue about landing at Customs in KICT. This was a huge win for us and it saved a stop and likely a couple hours. Thanks again Mark B.

Suppose that for some reason we determined that we couldn’t make it into KICT. We had plenty of legal alternatives it’s just none offered Customs. A couple questions...1)should the fact we needed Customs be factored into the legal definition of an alternative. Namely enough fuel to miss and go to an airport that had Customs ? If so should you get landing rights at your alternate and tell them they are just an alternate? (You have to get a Customs official to grant you landing rights prior to arrival). 2) suppose we decided the winds and weather prevented us from landing at a Customs airport. How do you choose where to land, what do you do when you land (at 3am), how big a goat rodeo do you think it becomes? This was going through our minds. WTF do we do? What are the ramifications? Consider our pax. A huge delay messes their schedule up and attracts a lot of attention. “Rockers land at 3am at non-Customs Airport”. Some real TMZ stuff. The unknown could have forced a gethomeits type scenario. Imagine CRM issues. Jesse saying let’s not risk it and land somewhere else. Me saying FT we got to make it cause it is almost worse than death if we don’t. Trust me if the first time you think about it is enroute beyond the “point of no return” it ain’t good. Reminds me a bit of that soccer flight accident in South America.

Not an issue you hear every day! BT strikes again.

My fav moment was on departure. At V1 a turbo jet pilot must remove their hand from power levers and place it on the yoke. Piston drivers NEVER get this right at first. They are always ready to chop power amd keep it in the ground. Jets are designed such that after V1 you fly regardless of what happens. If your hand doesn’t move off the power levers you will risk chopping power. In the video I knock Jesse’s hand off the power levers. My copilot in the SIM at simcom did the same to me. Lol. I was so shocked. Payback is fun!

I would pick the closest airport that I could safely land and call customs on the ground. Tell them what happened and that you have not yet opened the cabin door. Yup, it'd be a goat rodeo.

Mark, was the stuff you were flying through at F320 painting on the radar?

The only CBP AOE I saw listed in Kansas was KICT. From a safety perspective, we were weighing fuel necessary to get to good weather at ICT vs the low ceilings in Kansas city and of course the customs issue (with high profile people).

It was interesting weighing flying lower with better winds (but anti-ice inefficiency) and higher fuel burn vs higher winds on top with better efficiency. This adds a layer of complexity for flight planning.

We were also getting intermittent “LE and RE Engine Deice Fail” annunciator lights while cruising in snow.

RE Customs...I called the KICT customs officer today to talk about this situation and how to handle it. His point was similar to Thomas's. Stay in the aircraft. Call the Customs facility you were scheduled to arrive at. "We will work with you". He indicated just refuel and continue on our way but stay in the aircraft. Soooo...at 3AM make sure you land where the FBO is open. Self serve fuel might not be a good idea.

Yeah...nothing scary. Remember at that altitude tilt management is important. It needs to be tilted down to see liquid precip. Too shallow a tilt and you might not see anything before you hit it.

They cleared us direct to JOT which according to the "Storm Cell" product of Sirius WX would have taken us through tops showing as FL300. We stayed over FNT because what tops were were showing were max'd at FL250.

It is an RDR2000 radar. Good one.

State of Kansas...correct as Kansas City is in Missouri. Next closest would have been KOKC. But if we couldn't make KICT we sure as hell wasn't making KOKC.

KMCI was reporting 1/4 mile viz. Actually landed there once with that reported viz...but that is another story for another time.

Back at ya Jesse. This is another area where BT pays off. We had never met but we both felt like we knew each other very well from reading everything on BT that each other has written. Lot of trust and confidence. Of course, Jesse's may have been misplaced but mine was not

State of Kansas...correct as Kansas City is in Missouri. Next closest would have been KOKC. But if we couldn't make KICT we sure as hell wasn't making KOKC.

KMCI was reporting 1/4 mile viz. Actually landed there once with that reported viz...but that is another story for another time.

The numbers:

Citation G100 Difference
Elapsed Time 10.45 4.9 5.55
Flying Time 8.5 4.9 3.6
Turn Time 1.95 0 1.95
Fuel Qty (gal) 1,420 1059.7 360
Fuel Cost $4,140 $3,518 $622
Avg Price $2.92 3.32 $(.40)
Cost At Retail $7,844 $4,875 $2,969
Avg Price $5.53 $4.60 $.97
Savings $3,704 $1,356 $2,348
Discount % 47% 28% 19%
Savings/Gal $2.61 $1.28 $1.33
Fuel/Hour 167.01 216.266 -49.25


Two takeaways - G100 is the way to go. $1.5m Cap cost. Engine/Parts Cost $750/hr Fuel qty used less, save 5.55 hours Non stop.

Think program fuel makes makes a difference? $3,704 on this trip alone!

Why is there a difference in the fuel price? Did the fuel stop have really cheap fuel and with the G100 you over flew this stop and ended up paying more per gallon? Sure looks like it would been a much easier trip in the G100!

Great takeaway on the G100 comparison. Living all the way to the east I’ve always thought eventually a transcontinental capable plane would be the way to go. You just nailed the reasons. Do suspect I get my feet wet with something not quite as elaborate though like a 501 Eagle II. You were quite busy, borderline probably fatigued; how did you like JJ being there? Could it grow on you?