I am not in anyway in this type of aircraft size as a vfr jockey, but i must say what a great idea with the PTT button und audio jack 
clearly gets my approval!!!!!! and full score for practical solutions
AdamFrisch wrote:
That means 2 stops between NY and LA. With the slipper tanks this can be reduced to 1 stop. Any stop, as you know, will eat at least 1-1,5hrs. Two stops and we’re adding 2-3hrs to our trip. It’s not a trivial amount.
True. So I think the slipper tanks may well be a worthwile investment.
AdamFrisch wrote:
Yeah, there’s even a longer range mod from Sierra, think it’s called the SII. It will do 2500nm
Something like that. These planes are quite inexpensive to buy but expensive to keep, even though the calcs in the marketing pack speak of 1200 $/hr total cost around. I’d be wary of it. Additionally, for this kind of airplane you need recurrency training quite often. Jason can say more about this I am sure, it just all adds up.
Fact of the matter is, that such distances are beyond the normal GA scope unless you are willing to do mods which take up payload in exchange of fuel. I don’t know that many planes which are capable of going 2500 NM in a useful time frame and leave the owner/pilot in a condition to perform useful work upon arrival. Most of those planes are modified airframes, effectively flying fuel tanks.
Great circle distance between LAX and JFK are 2150 NM.
To do this in one stretch, in the GA fleet I only know one airplane which can and that is a Monroyed Ovation. But it will take about 11 hours to do it, if there is no wind and probably oxygen.
Pressurized, the Malibu Matrix can do it with one stop, it boasts 1300 NM range. The turboprop variants would need two stops. At 200 kts, we are still talking 11 hrs flight time plus 2 hours on the ground.
So I think with your Commander and the LR tank mod you are not too far off.
Post moved from the MU-2 thread
maybe a drift from the original headline
as I have no idea about jet etc. but what is involved in something like this?
looking at ET I guess the sale price is more or less the price for the engines??
€345k
It’s a pity that what_next had a row with somebody and left. He would have no doubt given you his pretty forthright view on it
maybe AdamFrisch or JasonC being a bit further up the SEP jokeys here lol
I got this from a bizjet pilot friend who is very familiar with all these
i guessed so on the engine side (price is for engine time) but for sure that gives one a hell of lot flying time with these engines
any rough figure how much would it cost to run something like this with about 150/200 hrs a year?
There’s a guy over at another US forum who just did this and bought an old 501SP. He plans on flying it and not doing any engine overhauls, which is where the costs come from. Jets and TP’s values are in effect the values of the engines. As long as you’re happy doing that, to either walk away from your purchase when an engine blows up, or part it out, it could probably be a reasonable jet to operate. He has had a very reliable aircraft so far, and even when he needed to replace a few items, they were readily available and economical to get on the used market. The early Citations are very simple, basic aircraft, where the systems are no more complex than a high end piston of that era.
But as someone said, you should be on an N-reg so that you can legally go over TBO. If your forced to overhaul, like they probably have you do on the HB-register, then you’re dead. You could buy a Mustang for less once that happens. Thankfully, this plane has good engine times. Also, you have to realize the old JT15D engines burn a lot of gas. You’re looking at 160+ gal/hr, so although the entry price and parts prices per hour is low, the op costs are high due to fuel. Good thing is this one has the rare Branson aux fuel tank, which adds range.
Well, this plane is not registered in Switzerland anymore, or rather it no longer appears in the Luftfahrzeug Register.
So what it’s status is would have to be determined. It would have to be registered N or something other than EASA I reckon for it to make sense.
There is another one sitting at ZRH airport for years, ex-HB-VNU, long wing and was in a large maintenance inspection when the company owning it went bust, so it never got finished. According to some people I asked, it does not take much to fly again, but so far it has all the chances of ending up in the fire brigades heap.
I have a type rating on my FAA licence, and used to fly one with the Eagle mod. The maintenance can be fairly pricy for the phase checks. Remember this is a complicated aircraft and it’s 40 years old!
Corrosion is sometimes an issue in the toilet area,
Nice aircraft to fly, once you’ve flown a jet there’s no comparison.
I wouldn’t take it as a gift.
