Going on vacation to Hawaii this week. Was curious if Piaggio could make it to the mainland right now with the wind. Turns out it ‘can’, though the low fuel light would be on on final ! (Capacity 2800lbs).

Piaggio uses almost exactly the same fuel as a 441, albeit at a higher altitude and stronger tailwind. Still, pretty impressive with the larger cabin and you save 23 minutes!

2,653 lbs used 545 lbs remain capacity 3,200 lb. About 300 kn TAS. I have our profile tuned down about 1% so possibly very slightly conservative.

Do you need HF for Hawaii?

It would appear so, not sure.

https://radio.arinc.net/pacific/

-J

It would appear so, not sure.

https://radio.arinc.net/pacific/

-J

Yes you have to have HF to report to SFO your fixes.

Did it over 300 times with American

still in my head...Duets, Doner, Dopps, Dialo, Koko Head...

Quick poll for you guys. How are you handling the overhaul schedule items? As we all know its not required under Part91. This often comes up under the landing gear but there is a pretty lengthy list of other items.

Things like Trim/Alerion actuator overhauls, Brushes on ground blower etc.

Talking with Piaggio America was mixed....officially do them all. Unofficially he said if it was him he would not do things like gear and few others.

The prior owner did basically none of these so its quite overdue and I'm trying to decide if its worth another 250K of shop work.

Matt,

If it aint broke, dont fix it.

Different strokes I guess. My view is maintenance doesn’t get cheaper and if you haven’t done it the smart buyer makes you pay for it when you sell anyway. I know that’s how I approach things when I buy a used airplane. I keep up when possible but, as you know, some parts are currently unobtainable.

Hydraulics should require some thought on this.
Hyd System filter overdue? I'd at least exam that closely.
Electric motors run the hyd pump? Motors wear. Brushes, bearings and even drive splines wear. That might leave you stranded if something fails.

I really struggle with this - Maintenance Induced Failure. Happens to all shops...even the best.

For example, the only squawk on my bird was the door seal light would come on. They looked at it - couldn't find a leak. But I hated seeing that light flying at high FL's. Order door seal for replacement at next inspection.

Depart after replacement, climbing through 290 all hell breaks loose. Door seal lets "full loose." it's making a disconcerting racket...but the cabin doesn't depressurize. Return, wait a few hours as they look at it...and determine the door seal needs to be removed & reinstalled. Will take a few days (adhesives), so i airline home and then back. And it's better, but still squeals (without 'letting loose') on a fair amount of flights. Can live with it till next inspection where I expect it will be fixed for good.

I've gone into an inspection with no squawks...and left with a few. At very good shops. It's just a thing.

So, will continue the pursuit of perfection...knowing it's not a game I will win.

I agree. The inspection regimes on most airplanes cause more issues than they prevent. I always struggle about whether to bring up minor issues/squawks going into mx because if it is not an obvious problem then half the time it is made worse not better. Parts swaps when something failed, fine, not ambiguous. But adjustments, overhauls for calendar time, etc - ugh.

Matt-

I think Tony is spot-on in this assessment. It isn’t impossible to find another Part 91 buyer that sees and agrees with avoiding the the cost of P180 gear, but the rest of the items will certainly be squawked and/or negotiated in a future pre-buy. It might also be worth thinking about diminished core values if you run components over a longer term than designed? Give me a call if you want to discuss further…

Bryon

Thanks Bryan. I should have elaborated. I do everything required/recommended. I just cringe when we do it knowing we are going to disturb/create issues that weren’t there before.

I guess I should have squawked these in my prebuy for missing/overdue recommended items.

Lesson learned.