Mike,

Your comment about t/w training before multi-engine is interesting to me.

In the past I had a flight school with a twin and a Super Decathlon. My first lesson or two of the multi-engine syllabus was in the Super D. For exactly the reason you imply.

I wanted people to get used to assertive, positive aircraft control and learn what each of the three controls does. I wanted to students to know what they want the plane to do in all three axis, know how to manipulate the controls to effect that attitude, and have the will to do so.

Zeke

Nice to hear from you Mike C.

While looking over the expense data for this report, it was discovered that the most expensive fuel I ever bought, 100 gallons at PASI (Sitka, AK) for $9.39/gal, was never actually charged. It was arranged through World Fuel (a little discount over retail just under $10/gal), but they never billed us for whatever reason. This amount is included in the totals I gave.

I let World Fuel know and they are looking into it. I'd rather get it settled than leave it hanging.

Fuel prices in Alaska were otherwise very reasonable if you play the game right. At PAFA (Fairbanks, AK), it was $4.56 and they fueled me on the public parking ramp on the east side ramp. At PANC (Anchorage, AK), I taxied over to PALH (Lake Hood) and parked there, and since I was off the FBO ramp, I got get the independent fueler International Air Services to come and fuel me at $4.55 (FBOs wanted > $8).

I didn't actually need the 100 gallons at PASI, I made it to KBFI with more than enough, but I wanted to be sure I had good reserves given there are not a lot of great options out there.

Parking in Alaska was cheap. PAFA and PALH were $10 per day, same price as a Super Cub. I flew to PABR (Utqiagvik, AK) and they had no parking fee. PASI had no parking fee but the FBO would charge you $472 facility fee *if you walked through their building*. So I parked at the south end and used the personnel gate with key code. In total I paid $120 for 14 days in Alaska. I parked 3 nights at KBFI (Seattle, WA) and that cost me $300. Go figure.

When you go north of Fairbanks, there are only 3 paved runways available. Deadhorse, a private field up near the north coast, and Utqiagvik. It makes for some interesting flight planning for an alternate. My alternate was Fairbanks, fly all the way back if we could not land at PABR. As it turned out, we were there on the only sunny clear day they had for a month.

Mike C.

Mike,

do you care to comment on how you feel currency wise with 100 ish hours a year? I am sure many of the very occasional posters like me have looked with some level of jealousy (I can't think of a better word, but please don't take it that I am being negative) at your operation, and wondered "can I do that?"

Thanks so much for sharing the data. It is fascinating.

Simon

Hours and proficiency are only loosely correlated.

100 hours is a lot of flying in a V. ~36,000 nm.

My currency plan is roughly this:

Get yearly 61.58 SPE recurrent training. This is ground school, flight school, and a full checkride every year. I've done 4 sessions with Flight Safety (initial crew and then 3 single pilot recurrents) all in sim. My next recurrent is in airplane, coming up in a few weeks. I like alternating between sim and airplane for training, each way has pros and cons.

Every 3 months or so, I go out and do a practice local flight which entails 3 approaches, holds, some air work at times, even single engine work (approach and go around this last time). It lasts about an hour, I do it single pilot, I do it (mostly) without autopilot. It is a pretty good work out with things happening pretty fast. My last exercise was recently, LPV at KHNB, VOR at KOWB, LPV at KEHR.

https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight ... /KEVV/KEHR

I find my loss of currency over time in the Citation is significantly less than the MU2. In the MU2 I trained every 6 months, but once a year in the Citation feels reasonable. If I haven't flown in 3-4 weeks, it doesn't seem all weird when I do, whereas the MU2 kind of did. The plane is relatively simple to fly, no fuel management, no props, simpler engine starting, etc.


I can't answer that question for you. There are clearly pilots who don't have what it takes to fly a Citation, and owners who don't have what it takes to manage one. You might be one of them. You can hire people to fly it and manage it, if you have the money.

And it does take some money, obviously. If you aren't going to get the utility you need/want from it, it is too expensive. In my case, 50-70% of the use is business, so that pays for it with pre tax dollars. And the plane provides a significant benefit for my company travel.

The Citation V will be the top of my aviation career. Cessna 170B, Piper Comanche 260B, Cessna T210L, Mitsubishi MU2-M, and now Cessna Citation V. Looks like I have to buy a Cessna every other plane, huh?

Oddly enough, the Citation is the cheapest airplane I have ever owned if you measure by the percentage of my net worth. The Cessna 170B exceeded my entire net worth by a lot when I bought it in 1988 for $21.5K (it just sold recently for $130K, BTW).

Mike C.

Thanks for sharing, Mike! I'm looking forward to what tips and tricks you come up with for the Phase 5!

Absolutely incredible. Thanks for sharing. I’ve spent substantially more than this each year for all three previous years (average 36k nm/year flown) on our P Baron.