Asking for trouble, the Piaggio Avanti

We have previous threads on the Piaggio

Congrats Loco!

I’ve flown quite a bit in P180’s, as I have a few friends who own them. In fact, I actually will shamelessly take credit for reviving the interest in this formerly maligned type:

I started at thread in 2015 on BeechTalk about these wonderful aircraft, where I actually talked to real owner/operators. Nobody had really done that, they’d just assumed they were charter planes mainly and the only info was from 2-crew operators catering to that category. I pointed out that it’s basically the ideal SP owner/operator plane – no type rating, fast as a jet, biggest standup cabin of just about any competitor, cheap to operate (compared to jet) etc. And as you can see in the progression of the thread over the 8 years if you read it form the start, it went from “that’s a piece of shit that will spend all its time in the shop” to a completely different tune. It started with one guy who bought one, then another followed then another, etc. Now, in that thread, I think we’re up to at least 10 owners of them! All of them are super happy, loving the plane and the performance.

I myself almost bought one a few years back when they were still severely depreciated, but it was just a bridge too far for me financially then. Today, an impossibility as the prices have skyrocketed. They’ve now been “discovered”.

Piaggio P180 thread at BeechTalk

Here’s from a trip just a few weeks ago – it’s an Avanti 1 with the Garmin panel retrofit (which many ar doing – great bang for buck):

Antonio wrote:

Is reverse thrust practical and usable? Affected in anyway by the pusher config?

Using reverse does reduce landing distance but also removes airflow from the rudder making strong crosswind landings on a short runway problematic.

Shanwick wrote:

While 800m is possible at light weights

As we are on EuroGA, the magical limit is probably 900m for LDLO. Any plane which can do this passes the test ;-)

Shanwick wrote:

with a single brake unit costing €67,000

A while ago a customer complained that a new set of brake discs and pads for his C510 Mustang was over 10k€. Seems like a bargain in comparison.

I hope you have a lot of fun with this amazing plane!

Congrats @loco !

The thread title kind of honors your forum name (as in crazy for non-Spanish speakers) . Not that there are many round here completely avoiding such title anyway, but you surpass most of us!

Is reverse thrust practical and usable? Affected in anyway by the pusher config?

While 800m is possible at light weights, with a single brake unit costing €67,000, you wouldn’t want to use <1200 too often.

johnh wrote:

There’s a Piaggio based at Palo Alto (or was anyway). The runway there is 745m.

Wow! I have to say…

There’s a Piaggio based at Palo Alto (or was anyway). The runway there is 745m.