I'm sorry for my delay in sharing this, I know the deal here and I haven't transferred pictures to my computer yet - sorry.....

We purchased a CJ2 two weeks ago. Haven't yet sold the king air but we've been lowering the price every two weeks and we are getting a lot of calls so I think we found the market.

Details on the CJ2 - N757CP:
2002 CJ2
3700ish hours
GTN 750 & 650, Universal UNS, Proline 21
New P&I
Bravo style steps
Tap Elite & Pro parts
Just finished its Doc-10

Insurance was very reasonable (Tom Hauge is amazing!) and they didn't require any mentor time. I however do!

I have flown it about 18 hours so far (with a mentor pilot) but it still doesn't seem quite real to me. It is an amazing airplane. Bought it in IND and flew it home at FL420 (don't have RVSM yet so we needed to climb through FL290-fl410). It was ISA+17 at 390 so we were just eeking out 500FPM but it got up there and accelerated to 390ish in about 5 minutes (saw 400kts after we burned off some fuel). As we climbed out, I was staring at a line of thunderstorms that we topped in the high 30's. I looked down and thought about how I would have been picking my way through them, getting beat up and blowing the boots in the KA. At the same time, I pulled out my calculator and did some fuel burn math. We were burning 380PPH/engine at 390 TAS - the king air would be about 270PPH at 265KTS. I justified this move-up on these (and other) points but I didn't think I'd get to see an example on the first flight!

Flying the CJ isn't hard but I'm not ready to turn-loose my mentor pilot just yet. So far I've done one day of shooting approaches (FLG, TEX, MTJ) and the rest of my time has been doing work trips. I still need to do some more dedicated training before I'm ready to go fly in any tough weather (I probably should go fly alone in some good weather, I just haven't had time). If this was a legacy Citation, I wouldn't need as much mentor time - it is not that I have any experience in them either but I know my way around the steam gauges and the 430. The ProLine 21 suite is amazing but it is different. My favorite feature on the Proline is the airspeed trend line. It is cool flying the airplane right up against the barber pole (on the way down) and this tool makes it so easy to nail. I also love the "magenta snowflake" - this is the vertical guidance for crossing one or more fixes on Sids and Stars. The GTN's (this is changing soon!) have only one point for vertical nav. I was worried that a complicated "descend via" Star (like the Zombz one in APA) would eat my lunch flying SP in a jet but between the snowflake and the airspeed trendline it was a piece of cake.

Some fun stuff: I was at 10,000 and ATC asked me for best rate through FL220 so I plugged 4500FPM into the AP to see what happened. My airspeed did bleed off a bit as I got higher but I was still indicating 175 at FL220 - this was at ISA +15 and close to gross so it'll be fun to see this on a cool day. I'll try to do a write up on this in a different thread - I got to fly the Tamarac winglets CJ2 up to 450 (amazing!) and we did a fun descent from 450 - we pulled the engines to idle (had no problem holding the cabin) popped the boards and pushed it to the pole. We saw 8000FPM in the 30's and at least 6000FPM the rest of the way down. I wouldn't do this with Pax but it was fun to see what the airplane can do.

Tomorrow we fly SDL-ARR-RAC-LSE and do several meetings along the way, The next day is to Billings (BIL) then the next day to SAN & SDL. The KA could do all that but it would be a long trip and probably take an extra day.

I'm no Mark Hangen but I'll try to report in on my progress.

And for that the world breathes a sigh of relief

Thanks for posting John and congratulations. Looking forward to seeing pics and hearing more about your bird

Great write up, thank you!

Very good report John - I’m glad to see you’re enjoying it. I guess you have realized how much easier it is to get around in this than the KA or anything else.

Skip the photos - let’s see some Mark H style videos!

Nice report John. Glad to hear it's working out so well. You are now officially ruined; for the better.

Congratulations. That is so cool.

John. Just out of curiosity did you consider a legacy Citation? Maybe something like the Eagle II?

Very cool write-up, and I find it fun as one pilot will likely never walk in your shoes to get to live a little through you!

John, fantastic, been waiting for you to share....................

Frigging happy for you, awesome bird.

Here is 46 seconds of John's first 18.5 hours. Landing at KVGT. NBAA. There were four typed pilots on the aircraft. John is not a good sharer (meaning the rest of us were spectators)

[youtube]https://youtu.be/wMsKw3cEG8A[/youtube]

Enjoy the CJ2!

Congrats!

Happy to hear you made the jump. Coming from steam gages to the Pro Line takes a little getting used to but you will love it. Quieted smooth never gets old. The extra altitude reduces stress for long trips too. You won't regret your decision. Have fun!

John-
Most important congrats on your new bird! You are a real delight to work with and I'm pleased you are pleased. Look forward to seeing you a bunch around SDL this winter (or at least until the temps climb back up to 110+!). Amazing we are virtually neighbors in Scottsdale ....Best to you operating that sweet machine