You might want to check the prices for early King Airs.

On trade-a-plane.com, for $350K you can buy the first *FIVE* King Airs.

*ALL* *FIVE* of them!

And you still had almost $100K LEFT after doing that!

Mike C.

My last fuel purchase: $2.59/gallon.

65 GPH, 290 KTAS, is $0.58/mile.

An A36, 16 GPH of $5.00 fuel, 180 KTAS, is $0.44/mile.

Bet those were a lot closer than you thought.

PS: KHSD Jet-A is $2.28.

Mike C.

Applies generally to the 3 blade versions, 1976 and prior.


In my case, plex windshield, no AD props, and engines that will not need to be overhauled in my lifetime. Not clear I even get to the first HSI.

Also, no oil cooler deice boots. Those damn things break all the time on the later models and cost a lot to replace, but they don nothing useful.

If you want cheap to maintain, you want a 3 blade MU2.

Mike C.

I can do one better.

I have GMP. I pay a whopping 42.50/hour/side and I pay for nothing on my motors. That includes:
- nozzles
- SOAPs
- SBs
- ADs
- catastrophic events
- prop governor
- FCUs
- hots
- overhauls

Also, something about the Garretts- it's a real pain in the ass to have a hot section or an overhaul because it takes time, and I want my bird in the air flying. I've got a 7000 TBO with one 3500 hr. hot. That's not a lot of wasted down time. I've got Joe Megna at Jet Air (he's the equivalent to Eagle Creek for Commanders, they have a top notch shop over there in Indy), the guys over there are freakin' awesome, I can't say enough good things about them. They'll get you in and out of a 100 hour in a couple days and you'll be charged fairly as well.

My last fuel purchase: $2.59/gallon.

65 GPH, 290 KTAS, is $0.58/mile.

An A36, 16 GPH of $5.00 fuel, 180 KTAS, is $0.44/mile.

Bet those were a lot closer than you thought.

Jim, we're not far from each other. You better not come down to South Jersey and fly this thing, you'll drop that Baron like a bad habit.

I've owned my Mits for about 2.5 months now. I fly about 8-10 hours a week. It's simply the most amazing airplane I've ever flown. The Aerostar is more fun, but lightly loaded today (2/3 tank of gas, three people and a dog) climbing out of South Jersey regional I took off, climbed to 2k, boogied out from under the class B at 200 indicated and definitely not 250 indicated because that would be illegal, cleared the class B shelf by .5 mile, yanked back on the stick, standard rate to the right to head south, and climbed out of 7000' and thus the class B indicating 180 and still climbing 3000' minute.

I didn't feel like dealing with an IFR flight plan, so I stayed at 17.5' and went direct. I didn't start the descent until I was five minutes out, because the airplane doesn't care at all if you fall 4000'/minute at red line, and it's so solid pax don't even notice or care.

It's awesome.

Damn, I gotta get me one of them there Aerostars if they are more fun than that!

Ok, just one more comment, speaking of pax comfort. You can push power in, take it off, do whatever in a Mits- the pressure is rock solid, and the heat and AC is outrageously good. That air cycle machine is the best. I wish the HVAC in my house worked half as well.

David Klain, another member here and a Marquise owner, pointed me in this direction; I was really not thinking I was going to like the Mits, I kind of settled for it because the Merlin I wanted was unavailable at a reasonable price. Honestly, I couldn't be happier. If I could just find a spot to put 150 more gallons, I'd have a true 1800NM ship.

That's the thing with the Mits. I can't believe they haven't developed some sort of aux tank STC system for them. 1000nm is a little thin. The Commander 695 will go 2000nm straight out of the factory….

I would assume your empty weight is about 7,100 pounds.

403 gallons standard usable fuel is 2,700 lbs.

Leaves you with 720 pounds. That's only 107 gallons.

Take out a 200 lb pilot allowance, 78 gallons.

How are you going to legally use 150 gallons?

If you wanted maximum range, you should have bought the Merlin or a 441.

Mike C.

Craig,

I know the airframe can take the additional all up weight as Saab uses MU-2's as target tugs and have a fleet of 6-10 Modified with pylons on the wings.

To get MHI or the FAA to consider it is a whole different battle. But those pods must be atleast 200 -300 pounds out on the wing. And these are older 3 piece wing airframes not the one piece of the Solitaires/ Marquise.

In 1995, George Mall of IBA - one of the largest Mu2 owners and one of the originators of the Aft baggage tank STC, started to think about extending the tips with another 30 gallons and tip dumps to get the airplane quickly back down to tip landing restriction. However, we were already caught up with buying the Miami Cargo door STC for long bodies and redesigning the crew doors for both airframes.

Never had time to address getting more fuel STC'd for both airframes.

Nigel

You had better not handle an engine failure in an Mu-2 just like a Baron.

Piston pilots are taught to verify the failed engine by retarding the throttle/power lever.

This is NOT done in a Garrett powered turboprop.

If the NTS system fails or malfunctions your only back up is the Beta Follow Up, which start to drain oil out of the propellor hub and keep the blades from going flat. Beta follow up only works with the power lever fully forward.

Having trained pilots who are simultaneously flying piston and Garrett powered twins I have seen this come up in the simulator.

It's important that pilots don't revert to piston; identify, verify, feather procedures.

It is, but that's not quite an MU2. My plane does 1286 nm with IFR reserves.


The larger wing of the Commander allows it to fly higher, FL350, which really aids in range. Same effect for the 441. The Merlin just has huge amounts of fuel to get range.

Mike C.

Again, nope. Adam, I realize you're a creative Hollywood type, and I'm very proud of you for being confident enough in your fasion sense to consider yourself a snappy dresser, but maybe get a little time in your turbine- or maybe any turbine- and then speak. Remember when you thought you'd go LOP in your A* and get a 2000NM range? Yeahhhhhh...no.

My bird goes even farther than Mike's, albeit not by much. In fact, if I RVSMed it (is that even available on a Mits?) and got a direct climb, the book says 1400NM with reserve. Also, my bird is lighter than that Mike. I'll dig for the numbers, but I've got 810lbs to play with after full fuel and a 200lbs pilot.

I don't think RVSM is worth it; its absurd to me that RVSM costs as much as it does on any airframe, although I'd sure like to be at FL310 sipping fuel if it was an inexpensive add on. If I can get ahold of an existing fuel extension, well, even an extra 40 gallons would be nice. That's still an extra 150NM.

Craig, when I was at MAAA, I was talking to one of the turbine OH shops, and he was extolling the virtues of Garretts...we got to talking about KA vs MU2, and he said the -1 Garrett was becoming very hard to find..that they were getting lots of calls from guys wanting to find serviceable -1 engines.


When I first started looking at MU2s, the F was the model I was interested in, for all the reasons you listed. I then started seeing that the ag guys had snapped up a lot of the -1 engines...


stan