as far as getting a good AMT is concerned find a person that grew up in your part of the of world on a ranch and they will very happy to get back to the land where they grew up. our happiest techs were always the ones that grew up in wisconsin or Minn, worked on either coast and came back home. especially if their partner is from the area

You run 4 airplanes and don't have a mechanic OR a fuel farm?

I still think the "I can't maintain a King Air, parts are hard to find" line from your shop is BS

As for "who can work on a citation" ... your mechanic that you hire who also drives the fuel truck that you fill for $1.67/gal

Great plane, but tiny high pressure tires are not suited for Wyoming winters necessarily.

Oh my... you guys are killing me... MU-2's, Merlins, why not throw in a turbine DC-3...

He has the right airplane, that is proven by the big operators... a couple of which who are operating almost as many King Airs as there are Merlins or MU-2's flying.

You don't reduce op cost by cheap airplanes that break all the time, are complicated, have pilot limitations or insurance issues. You reduce op cost by efficiency in your operation, efficiency includes a function of conformity.

He doesn't have an airplane issue... he has a maintenance issue (maybe)

Skipped to page 7

Did someone mention the Denali

>Did someone mention the Denali

You mean SkyCourier?

OP wanted a "real" airplane available this decade, and a "twin".

Doc needs a fleet of planes that are:

Twin
Turbine
New (but not terribly expensive)
Short legs (<500NM)
Less than 4 passengers

Here is the answer:

http://www.vulcanair.com/userfiles/file ... or2014.pdf


It’s Italian

It isn’t pressurized


They do make a fixed gear version:

https://airplane4sale.com/Used%20Aircra ... 20Info.pdf


Of course if you want the gold standard for a tough aircraft:

https://www.vikingair.com/twin-otter-in ... escription

All those miss the cheap target. This isn’t about airplanes it’s about money.

“Cheap” is a relative term.

Based my very quick price check the AP68TP-600 is about 1/2 the cost of a new baby King Air.



Of course if you want to consider used:




To quote (badly) Eisenhower:

The only replacement for a King Air is another King Air.
But
The Doc and his crew are unhappy with their King Airs and are looking for a replacement.


What’s the alternative?

Maybe a fleet of refurbished J31s.

https://www.controller.com/listings/for ... aircraft/8

https://www.aircraftcostcalculator.com/ ... eam+S31-32

He will need to deal with having a two man crew, but depending on how valuable the passengers are, the reduction in insurance cost might pay a big part of the cost of a second pilot.


I expect that after a bunch of head scratching and teeth gnashing, he will end up keeping his King Airs, Ike was right.

Thanks for your thoughts Forrest. Yes, keeping the King Airs is certainly a distinct possibility. Two of our partner physicians have allegedly re-considered their absolute dis-interest in a SETP, but we’ll see if that opinion spreads among them. I’m in somewhat of an odd situation because I’m supposed to be guiding the decision but it doesn’t really affect me directly since I fly myself and I’m very happy with the MU-2…but I also don’t need to carry $10-30M in liability coverage. The University of Wyoming is on the same home field…they have an atmospheric research KA200 (highly modified/experimental to fly into thunderstorms) and another transport KA200…with 6 KA’s on one small field it would be great to pool resources on maintenance, but pairing private planes with state planes probably isn’t possible. We are looking at all solutions. One of our pilots has a long history with twin Otters and loved them, but they have a lot of “induced headwind” (they are very slow).

They also have a 2013 350i based there, they bought it from one of our clients.

Thanks Chip…that’s news to me. I’m assuming that they traded the 200 personnel transport plane for the 350 as I don’t think there’s room in their hangar for all three.

I can't speak highly enough of the mustang. Aside from the engine programs it routinely comes in 33 to 50 percent less in maintenance than our e90 king air, and actually burns less fuel on longer legs.

-Citation jet exchange

Actually still have all 3... not sure where they keep 'em!

given where they fly in Wyoming and already starting at a fairly high altitude, the twin otter will probably not work as it is not pressurized.