I'm running a Westwind I. It's capabilities are amazing. We can tanker fuel for most of our trips. Fuel is cheap in Ardmore, OK. On a good day we've calculated we can go either coast and back without taking on fuel.

The two pilots eat you up if you're not one of them.

The fuel burn is pretty high but we true out at 425.

The hourly maintenance schedule with almost zero calendar requirements is amazing if you're not flying it a lot.

But I can buy a brand new car for the cost of replacing the brakes. We let it roll out on landing every chance we get.

Lance, I'm a lowly A36 driver and my brakes are free by comparison and I still let it roll out almost every landing. Good for tires too. I appreciate your conservative style.

Who do you use for mx?

Brian Butler drives down from OKC to do most of the maintenance.

The brake issue is the cost of brake parts not really being produced anymore.

Lance, How has reliability been? Good dispatch rate?

It has flown right around 30 trips in the past 26 months that I've owned her. It has failed to fly one time because of a flap actuator.

It took about 3 days to get it fixed and back up.

We've obviously had other maintenance issues along the way but that was the only one that dead lined the plane.

For an older jet I'm not sure if you'd really call that reliable or not.

So you are able to maintain ok without the brand name shops?

What would you conclude to be your max range with unrestricted climb & descent profiles, winds aside?

About the copilot issue. Do you have a copilot in the family/business or do you hire a contract pilot?

To what extent do you figure the copilot must be trained (typed or familiar ME/IA) in terms of flying the aircraft safely? I have been told that the main function of the copilot in the westwind/astra series is to push the yoke forward on takeoff so the PIC can handle tiller steering and throttles.

We are comfortable planning for 2100 nm.

I am currently not competent and definitely not insurable to fly left or right seat so I'm stuck using contract pilots. I'm heading to Simcom in October to fix that. It will also free up a seat in the back.

My main pilot tells me it's fairly easy to fly for a jet but has very limited automation. Can't be that much harder than transitioning from a 182 to a Merlin.

+1

Mike C.

Isn't that what we want?

Mike C.

Isn't that what we want?

Mike C.

That would make things a lot easier but if you are dry leasing the citation (dry lease from an LLC that you do not own is an assumption on my part), doesn't that make you the operator? The FAA's definition of a dry lease is the leasee provides the crew and the leasee is the operator.

I'm an owner of the LLC that leases the Citation. The LLC has the dry lease with the ownership entity of the plane. The dry lease sets the criteria for approved pilots. My lease specifically says I'm an approved pilot within my LLC and specifies I must fly with an approved co-pilot and attend annual recurrent (there are open pilot criteria also). Of course, insurance also specifies who's insured to fly the plane. Since the dry lease is with the LLC, it's the operator when we are using it. We choose the pilots (including me) and dispatch the aircraft. I've never flown with the owner of the plane as a pilot for one of my trips. He is single pilot rated. So, we control crew and dispatch.

The LLC as the operator needs the RVSM cert. Not you as the pilot. (that"s how one of the aviation attorneys on this board explained it to me in the context of a case where this ended being an issue).