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"Air Taxi" with a Cirrus

Peter wrote:

how a business deals with the customer [non]appreciation of the wx risk

Same way we all do: I’ll never forget the expression on a certain person’s face on being handed (and told to wear) a lifejacket for a trip to the Scillies.

EGBW / KPRC, United Kingdom

No, with over a thousand hours in a 22, I dont think this is a suitable aircraft.

For charter work the aircraft needs to be very robust, and while the 22 is ok, it just isnt quite there. I think you need something very close to 100% reliability, and I would put the Cirrus in the lower 90%, maybe even a little less if operated by a few different pilots who are less than forgiving on the aircraft.

Aircraft which have proven themselves for charter work have better dispatch rates.

Aside from the aircraft, weather is also a factor, and the Cirrus is not suitable for all weather flying when compared with the most robust charter light twins. In fact I doubt the suitability of anything that doesnt have boots for ice removal.

Thanks Fuji. A Cirrus will not be a substitute for a tp or jet and shouldn’t be marketed as such.

I think that for a shared ownership model (where expectations are kept realistic) it can work and have a purpose.

Obviously a pressurized turbine plane with boots and wx radar will have a better dispatch rate.

always learning
LO__, Austria

A seneca V would also be suitable for the same price, and has 2 engines and boots, but I don’t think the dispatch rate is very good.
Apart from airliners, are there any plane that would have “close to 100%” dispatch rate?

LFMD, France

Probably not for “air taxi” but how about “holiday pack” in Alaska/Bahamas?

https://cirrusaircraft.com/radventureseries/

They are clear on weather for T&C and ask for your preferred wine

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Apart from airliners, are there any plane that would have “close to 100%” dispatch rate?

CJ, Pilatus, TBM… my guess is 98%.
always learning
LO__, Austria

A 421C, mentioned here is pretty good – similar to a TBM/PC12.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I guess KingAir as well.

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

I think without going into the territory of the more exotic, something like the old workhorse of an Aztec is a very good model, and why they have been used extensively for this purpose in some pretty remote places.

Just about bullet proof, pretty much all weather (as much as any unpressurised light aircraft) and superb load carrying (six proper adults and luggage).

It will do the job, day in day out, legendary reliability, proper boots on all the bits that matter, nothing not to like other than the fuel burn, so fuel rich African states are perhaps a more natural home these days.

It is one of the few light aircraft I have flown that with reasonable maintenance really nothing ever seems to go wrong, and you can almost guarantee the aircraft will be fit to fly whenever you like and, if you are brave enough, you are far more likely to give up in weather way before the aircraft does!

Plus: For the price of the Cirrus you can buy 3-4 Aztecs that increases the odds that one of them is in flyable condition tremendously.

In general: Individual plane dispatch rates are quite irrelevant for air taxi operations. Nobody who is mentally fit to board an airplane would try to set up such an operation with just one plane. The business question is if you can afford the cost of capital for a fleet that is large enough so that the techniocal dispatch rate is in the high 90ies independent of that of an individual plane.

Germany
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