Pretty soon we'll have him in a Gulfstream. It's the BT way

One thing that's missing in your mission statement:

How often?

If this happens a couple of times a year, and the owner wants the prestige of owning a plane, the least you might consider is a 421.

If the trips are frequent, you'll be money ahead going with a King Air. They're slow-ish, but reliable and comfortable and pretty much, do this trip. Costs are highly predictable.

If you press a 40-50 year old pressurized piston twin into this as a frequent mission, you will have a lot of down time, you will have a lot of unexpected maintenance expense, you will spend a lot of time hunting for parts. You will not spend less than the King Air. Even though the paper numbers for the King Air are scarier, the unexpected costs for a 40+ year old pressurized piston cabin class twin.

I've run the numbers, there's no way to do this cheaply.

Worst case: assume one 200 nm trip per week and two 600 nm trips per month, so 4,000 nm per month all in.

Unfortunately, from all the feedback so far, I think TPs are the only game in town. I think we will have to shift to staying with piston aircraft for missions 200 nm and less and fly commercial for everything greater until we have the cash flow to afford a TP.

In the interim, my accountant suggests that we pursue the American Airlines AirPass program or the United PassPlus program to lock in predictable travel costs and secure last minute tickets as business needs dictate. We'd then keep track of how our commercial travel costs trend against hourly aircraft costs. We can comfortably afford only $500 - $600 per hour now, so it may be a while before we can afford a TP. Oh well...

Vic.

My prediction: Once you start flying the piston, your accountant will be unpleasantly surprised by how inflexible airline travel is and how much time it consumes. Depending on how much you value your employees' time, it may move you to TPs earlier.

Chances are good that with employees travelling on short notice, a TP will be much faster than the airlines to ANY destination you have in the United States. If you fill the seats, the TP will win on time *and* price.

Which airport would you use for commercial service?

Also consider a PA46. It has a vibrant support ecosystem (parts, shops, CFI's, mods) and $500-600/hr is a good budget. It's not a limo but it is a nice airplane and will generally impress laypeople. It's not exactly what you want, but it's close and within your budget.

We'd considered the PA-46, but wound up back with the twin Cessnas based on concerns with reliability and the twin versus single argument. I don't want to pollute this thread with that holy war though. Suffice it to say that we had convinced ourselves that a 340A or 414A was doable financially and could meet some of our other goals as well. Now, I am not so sure.

Airports = Charlotte and St. Louis.

I don't know the numbers and I don't think I've heard anyone mention it. But what about a Cheyenne?

https://www.aopa.org/go-fly/aircraft-and-ownership/aircraft-fact-sheets/piper-cheyenne


This looks like a nice one.

https://www.controller.com/listing/for-sale/211873977/1979-piper-cheyenne-i-turboprop-aircraft
Just a quick search found this one.. I have no dog in this discussion and no interest in the ad.

I would rate the Cheyenne as having the least impressive cabin out of all the turboprop aircraft he's considering.

Worst case: assume one 200 nm trip per week and two 600 nm trips per month, so 4,000 nm per month all in.

Unfortunately, from all the feedback so far, I think TPs are the only game in town. I think we will have to shift to staying with piston aircraft for missions 200 nm and less and fly commercial for everything greater until we have the cash flow to afford a TP.

In the interim, my accountant suggests that we pursue the American Airlines AirPass program or the United PassPlus program to lock in predictable travel costs and secure last minute tickets as business needs dictate. We'd then keep track of how our commercial travel costs trend against hourly aircraft costs. We can comfortably afford only $500 - $600 per hour now, so it may be a while before we can afford a TP. Oh well...

Vic.

We'd considered the PA-46, but wound up back with the twin Cessnas based on concerns with reliability and the twin versus single argument. I don't want to pollute this thread with that holy war though. Suffice it to say that we had convinced ourselves that a 340A or 414A was doable financially and could meet some of our other goals as well. Now, I am not so sure.

Airports = Charlotte and St. Louis.

If you are flying out of CLT, the AA Airpass will be the right choice. Pay a flat fee by the mile, mostly one leg.

$500-$600/hr will pay for an NA Baron, but not a pressurized twin.

Buy a single pilot citation. $300k or so buys one. More comfortable, capable, and safer than any turbo prop. Not much more cost to operate either.

Mike T knows better but I believe A decent SP citation is currently 500k+

And the best part is you just throw it away when you’re done!

admittedly I haven't read the thread but has anyone said Navajo?