I teasingly tell Nancy that I limit my dreaming/planning for the next plane beyond our Cirrus SR22 GTS Turbo Perspective (pictured below) to 1 or 2 hours per night. This has been going on since about September and includes spreadsheets, many .pdf’s downloaded, and e-mail conversations with pilots and mechanics.
Nancy and Steve picking up their new Cirrus in Duluth MN.
The Cirrus is awesome. It flies about 190 knots plus or minus 10 depending upon altitude. The G1000 system by Garmin for Cirrus (Perspective) is great. In particular, the digital GFC 700 autopilot is awesome and nicely integrated into the FMS/Nav system. We had a great vacation last year on the East coast. We have about 180 hours on it since new and it still smells and feels new.
So why a new plane? Well we have the following additional perceived needs:
- Pressurization: The oxygen system works pretty well with cannula up to about 18,000. At this point you are supposed to switch to the oxygen mask. But what do you do with dogs? Also, to climb above icing you need to have full oxygen tanks. We don’t have O2 at the airport so its always daunting to launch with moisture around.
- FIKI: Our Cirrus is not certified for FIKI (Flight In Known Icing), but truthfully, the TKS (weepeing wing) FIKI systems are still limited in duration. So if icing is predicted up to FL240 then we may not have enough persistence to escape.
- Cabin Class: Modest cabin class to make it easier to carry our dogs (Golden Retriever & Standard Poodle) on trips with us and/or friends/family.
In today’s aviation one often starts with the desired avionics and adds to it. In our case, we have enjoyed digging in to the G1000 with the GFC-700 autopilot. So we wanted to limit our search to planes with a G1000. Unfortunately, at the time we started this search, only two used airplanes have been approved for a G1000 retro-fit, the King Air (C90 and B200) and Cessna CitationJet or CJ (Serial numbers 1 to 300).
My main missions are:
- Trips from my homeport of KDLS (Dallesport WA near Oregon border) to KFFZ (Falcon Field, Mesa Az). Distance is 850 nm direct and about 925 nm with normal routing.
- Vacation missions to get to the East Coast and visit friends.
- Future trip to go around the world.
The options are:
- Piper Meridian – Approximately 260 knots at 40 gph and 1000 nm range without reserves. The G1000 has just started shipping with the Meridian pack and ship companies in late 2008 so it needs to be virtually new. New price about $2.1M and used about $1.9M.
- King Air C90AXP – Blackhawk upgrade cruises at 270 knots and 82 gph with about 1300 nm range. My vision would be to get an older model, say 1995, then do the Blackhawk engine upgrade with XR (long range) tanks plus the Raisbeck performance upgrades (ventral fins, props, MTOGW, etc.) and the BLR winglets. My guess is this would be about $2M including clean up of interior and exterior. It would compare nicely with a C90GTi or C90GTx selling for a bit over $3M.
- TBM 850 – Very Fast Turboprop (VFT). Cruises at 320 knots and 65 gph with a range of about 1300 nm. Very sweet plane, but only available since June 2008 so it would need to be a new one. Price new is about $3.2M and the cheapest used one I have spotted is $2.6M (prop strike). Typical cruise is up to FL310 with RVSM but max speed occurs at about FL260.
- Cessna Citation Mustang (C510) – Very Light Jet (VLJ). Great plane with about 330 knots at 82 gph at FL410, but will be over 100 gph if stuck at lower altitudes. Range is about 1250 nm. Hold 2 + 4 + 1 (pilot seats, cabin, potty seat). Price is about $3.2M new with used ones at cheap as $2.3M. First models shipped in 2007.
Some interesting planes that are left off the list:
- Beech Baron G58 – It’s not pressurized.
- Piper Mirage – It has recently been named as a G1000 recipient. I am not convinced that the I want to fly a turbocharged plane after getting used to the turbo-normalized one I currently fly. Plus I have concerns about the reliability of the engine. In fact, I have personal knowledge of two person involved in engine-out accidents.
- Pilatus PC-12 — No G100 option but awesome plane in terms of payload, size, comfort, pilotability, etc.
- Cessna CJ — Heavy on the fuel usage and would require either getting type rating in the plane or in the simulator without the G1000 and then training back in the plane.
- Phenom 100 — Just released and new ones are slightly more expensive that the Mustang which is already above my budget, plus the differences are modest from the Mustang. I would buy Cessna/American given a chance.
So the Meridian is a nice plane but it’s drawbacks for me are the smallest cabin, awkward access to baggage behind last seat, range limited (hard to plan more than 800 nm) and payload limited.
The King Air C90AXR would be awesome in terms of passenger and pilot comfort with large cabin. But it is the most expensive by far with twice the fuel burn and twice the engine maintenance. It seems to be like the big Suburban approach from cars and we just aren’t Suburan people.
The Mustang is interesting and an awesome plane. Some strengths include best speed, fast climb to high altitudes above weather and icing, great baggage space, nice cabin, and its a JET! But on the downside it requires the most training for both Nancy and me including check rides to ATP standards for the type ratings. Part of me thinks that would be fun, but I am not sure I will fly enough to warrant that level of effort and Nancy is a bit reluctant to sign up for that level of effort.
The TBM 850 is a great plane, but suffers from a cabin only slightly larger than Meridian and baggage behind the right seat. However, it has good speed and range characteristics.
So it seems Mustang or TBM 850. But I really want to stay about $2M or below.
Then it was announced that the TBM 700 and 700B would be able to be retrofitted with the G1000 system. The upgrade will probably be about $400K and models are available from $1M to $2M. So now we are looking good. The TBM 700 will get a top speed of 290 to 295 knots depending upon the configuration, so it’s about 10% slower than an 850.
We are excited as this might be the way to go. We will keep studying the situation.
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