Made a meaningful difference to my insurer in both rate and coverage limit. Also, only needed 25 hours in the plane to fly PIC. They seem to look at school and ratings along with loss history and flight experience. My prior military turbine training also made a difference to this insurer.

Kenneth,

The type rides have to be flown to ATP standards, even if you are only doing it as an add-on to a Private certificate. Before they changed the requirements for doing the ATP written, it just made since to go ahead and "upgrade" to the ATP when you did your type rating as the only additional effort was getting the written out of the way.

Naturally, if you didn't meet the experience requirements for an ATP you couldn't upgrade to ATP via a type ride, but you would still have to fly to ATP standards when doing that ride.

As Allen said, for those of us who are Part 91, it's mostly just bragging rights. I did my ATP several years before I ever even thought about buying a jet. At the time I was doing some corporate work, but still, I had no legitimate need for an ATP, it just seemed like something fun to do at the time. Heck, I went so far as to do the ATP for both Multi engine and Single - now there's a useless rating! Ha ha

John IV

Had to put off training while I went to Europe for a couple weeks and had some business to attend to. Trying to schedule a couple tune up flights now before a check ride. Between business, weather, some travel and trying to schedule with contract pilots, it's been a bit of a challenge, but still on track and I'm not pushed to complete by a deadline.

Glad to see that you are proceeding on course without feeling rushed Dave. This is the best policy, IMHO

Thanks. I already have a very capably plane; this would just fit the longer trips well and give more options.

It's definitely a very capable mix of aircraft Dave. BTW...if you're ever in the neighborhood of KUVA and/or KSAT, I would love to meet you and buy lunch.

Don't get down there much but will keep it in mind. Let me know if you're headed to North Dallas any time.

Dave

I start type rating at Simcom tomorrow- Monday March 2nd. I will share my experiences.

I picked up my C550 on Thursday. Picked up 7 hours of flight time KUVA - KSTP - KAPA -KSDL.

One thing I noticed right off the bat...you are always flying SIDS and Stars. Some are pretty complex. Crossing altitudes and speeds to comply with are common. The FMS is really important to help you manage the flight.

Another observation is the use of performance charts for every phase of the flight.

Much less flying by feel than the 310 and the AC90.

Dave...would you prefer I start a separate thread?

Good luck Mark and have fun!

Mark: whatever you'd like to do is fine with me. I just started this to talk about flying the Citation. I was flying a II, now a V. Would love to hear about your experiences in either however you prefer.
Weather was really bad here this week and I wasn't able to finish up. I'll be out of town for a bit, so, you may finish before me.
Hope you have a GREAT time!

Mark,

Congrats! I'm the wrong Dave but my vote would be for a new thread so that this thread doesn't turn into one of those 50 page threads...

other Dave

I agree with "other Dave".

Back on track for the check ride!
I had to put this off a bit between business, travel, the instructor's schedule and some personal matters. We also have had some really crummy weather which has been great for instrument approaches, but hasn't allowed us to do visual maneuvers as much as we wanted. Many cancelled flights.
Flew Thursday and Friday and really enjoyed the flights. Two V1 cuts Friday and they went well. Steep turns to ATP standards, stalls and a couple instrument approaches and landings. Departing North Texas Regional (KGYI) Friday, we got a climb to 10,500. When we cleaned the plane up and got to 160 knots, I just watched it climb at over 4,000 FPM! Got cleared into the class B on the way to Meecham (KFTW) and put the airspeed indicator just under 250 knots; that will get you there quickly.
So, I have three more flights scheduled next week. Check ride the following week.
Instructor says I'm flying the plane well, now, working on systems management and CRM.

Analyzed how much I'll be flying a jet, and it affirms my thoughts about dry leasing v. purchasing a Citation II or V.
A nice II with mid time engines will run $700 to 800,000. Then, one has to maintain it. A V will be about 1.5 million. I take one long trip a month on average. That trip will take less time in a jet than the KA. So, about five hours a month for the go high, go fast, go far stuff. All other trips will be shorter which fit the KA better. I'm thinking I'd fly 50 to 60 hours a year in the jet; the balance would be shorter trips. I can lease a V for $1,100 an hour dry times 60 would be $66,000. I can be on the owner's insurance for a $1,000 annual charge. Fuel would be the same if I dry lease of own. So, I can quantify my cost leasing and not have to do maintenance, find a hangar, purchase my own insurance, etc. Whether I lease or own, I will have to do annual recurrent training. I don't think I can own a plane for the same cost when maintenance, capital, etc are considered. Also, the lenders don't get concerned with a lease that doesn't have long term commitments, but they get real concerned when I put a jet on my balance sheet and have debt that has to be paid. Of course, I can terminate the lease any time. Harder to liquidate a jet.
So, long story short, I'm thinking about keeping an interest in the KA and leasing jet time. Several options here locally, but first, I have to finish the rating.

This check ride will also be for my ATP rating. Discussed that with the DPE and he has to review all areas of knowledge I missed on the written ATP test. Didn't do as well on that as I would have liked. Studied for the part 135 and when I got to the test facility, all they had was 121. So, I missed a lot of questions on areas like computing CG and setting trim on planes I'll probably not fly, but I'm going to go ahead and study those areas so I'm not deficient on the oral exam. DPE says to plan on four hours. Two oral and just over one flying, allowing time for pre-flight, actual flying, post flight and brief afterwards.
Instructor says he's going to be much harder on me this week to get me ready.
Back to the books now!