Asking for trouble, the Piaggio Avanti

I first became interested in the Avanti in 2020, and it took four attempts to find the right one.

The first one was an Avanti II in the USA. I made the trip. It had prior hail damage, the interior had a brown colour scheme, and the plane was in bad shape overall. I resigned.

The second one was an Evo in Singapore. Very good condition. Unfortunately, a team from Germany sent for the PPI found a leaky AUX tank. I resigned and lost my deposit. Ouch.

The third one was a nice Evo, but just before signing the LOI with an “NDH” clause, the seller remembered it had a tail strike. Resigned.

Then came along the fourth one. 2019 Evo with 990 hours and an auxiliary tank. Perfect spec and recent vintage. It was still on the factory airframe program and warranty. Engines on a program, too. I didn’t hesitate and bought it.

I plan to fly this plane non-stop between EPPO and LPFR, at least on non-windy days. It should cover the distance in an hour and a half more than the Learjet, burning 30% less fuel.

After flying in the CAT regime, I am looking forward to the freedom of NCO. No management organisation, no dispatch, no copilot. Short runways, steep approaches and hand flying

I expect not to fly it too much, so I’m dropping the programs. I am also prepared for longer maintenance because parts are not available for shipping the next day as they were with the Lear.

I will be starting the type rating on Monday. It will probably be a year before I can give a proper opinion on the type. I don’t have any pictures yet, but you can see the plane here:


See you at the fly-ins