Are you saying you'd fly a Meridian into a thunderstorm?

I don't understand your logic, no plane should go into a thunderstorm.

My understanding of your summer weather is relatively isolated air mass thunderstorms, not the squall lines we get here in the Midwest. So you delay your departure to let it pass, or pick a route that avoids it, a route that is typically VMC.

If you have widespread clouds, then you don't have 32 C, no solar heating.


No big deal, you'll get to altitude really fast and on course soon after, so the cost of this is minimal.

All engine climb rate is very high so it takes very little time to get to DP top altitude. Literally 2 to 3 minutes.

Mike C.

These stories are crazy to me. Who the hell cares what employees think about aircraft purchases? Buying a less safe, slower, less comfortable aircraft because of perceptions of others is the dumbest plane buying metric I have ever heard.

To me that means they are hiding things and insecure for a reason. What a weird world we live in.

Buy the best tool for the job and tell anyone that judges your choice to F off. Honestly thats a great way to find the bad apples. If they want a raise because I bought something as the business owner then they can leave. Grow up. We do not live in a Communist country.

I pay my employees well and they could care less what I do with my money.


Mike

That's the hard case since it goes into rising terrain, so you picked the worst case.

If the winds allow, go the other way. If the winds don't allow, then you get headwind benefit for gradient. Runways 10, 15, 20 are all downhill, runway 28 is 0.3% uphill, so works with some wind. So you have 180 degrees of runways to choose from, so the worst will be a direct crosswind.

I would also expect high temps correlate to southerly winds, favoring the downhill runways.


It is true. You can depart at gross at 32 C. The AFM says so. You can takeoff, you can do first segment climb, you can do second segment climb. The numbers work out.

The DP is only needed if you will be IMC and that's highly unlikely at 32 C at KSAF.

Mike C.

You could use this line of reasoning in any single vs. multi battle. With a single, the debate on OEI climb gradients, SE performance, etc...is all worthless. Gravity is your performance, and you're going to descend in a single if you lose your motor.

But let's ensure we all have clarity (especially among those new to flying or who are contemplating if a multi, of any kind, will be of benefit to them): Multi-Engine Planes Are Not A Perfect, Do Everything Solution!.

At the end of the day, before anyone considers a multi, we need to always remember what we learned back in the beginning. A second engine doesn't always solve all our problems. In some ways, it introduces a lot more problems. Operated improperly, the second engine just prolongs the glide to the crash site.

Always be cognizant of the risks for any operation you do. Run the numbers, gather all the resources you can. Departing heavy on a hot day into the mountains is asking for trouble. A backup plan of see-and-avoid can work, but it should be developed before takeoff and include exactly where you're going to go and how its going to work. At that point you're a mountain flyer, and Sparky's rules of mountain flying now apply in full force. What's the wind-ward vs. lee-side of the mountain? Where are the downdrafts? Is this a box canyon? What's my escape plan? Remember, you're on 1-engine at high density altitude. We likely have very, very little excess power and we'll be in a low energy state. Not much wiggle room!

In IMC or MVFR (what is MVFR in this case is in the eye of the beholder), a plan of "I'll use my limited visibility, synthetic vision, and TAWS to avoid terrain" is certainly not acceptable. You need a hard and fast plan that guarantees your butt's safety. If you're using an FAA departure procedure, great. Make sure you meet the climb gradients. If using an alternate procedure developed by a 3rd party, great. Be sure you have a plan to change to the alternate procedure when needed and have a plan to be able to accurately navigate that procedure. Be aware of the risk of some 3rd party procedures. In some scenarios, they may only guarantee you 35ft. of clearance. That's a yikes!

When your engine fails, it tends to take your IQ with it. Assume at that moment your brain will be mush. With a plan in place, you won't have to think (that much... ).

It's one thing to do it in training and in the sim. It's another beast entirely when it catches you by surprise, with people in the back, terrain all around you, alarm bells going off, ATC querying you, potentially poor weather, etc...A prudent pilot doesn't leave anything to chance. Engine out's are a lot less stressful when you don't have to worry about picking your way up a valley in MVFR using a TAWS map.


On another note, I've had the honor to fly a Beechjet 400XPR, a Beechjet with upgraded FJ44s, and I will say that the airplane is a beast. Too bad they never changed the performance numbers in the book. Pretty neat to do 3500ft./min. through 35,000ft. on our way to 45,000 climbing at redline on an ISA day!

Are you saying you'd fly a Meridian into a thunderstorm?

I'd like to thank all those people who could have bought a jet but bought turboprops instead due to perceive outside influences.

Those folks made my jet less expensive to acquire, so they have helped me get one. Thank you!

My employees really like the jet. I find they want to go on trips a lot more than before. They are very disappointed when they have to fly the airlines.

Mike C.

I'd like to thank all those people who could have bought a jet but bought turboprops instead due to perceive outside influences.

Those folks made my jet less expensive to acquire, so they have helped me get one. Thank you!

My employees really like the jet. I find they want to go on trips a lot more than before. They are very disappointed when they have to fly the airlines.

Mike C.

So if you are not going into the thunderstorm, that means you are not doing the DP that goes through it.

Therefore, both the Meridian and the Citation are doing something else, most likely VMC, and the DP is no longer a limiting factor.

If you can maintain VMC, then you don't need to meet the DP climb gradient. You visually maintain terrain separation.

Thus your limits are the takeoff, first segment, and second segment. My V will do that at 32 C at max weight at KSAF. *WITH* an engine failure.

Mike C.

My plane is significantly cheaper to own than a $6M PC-12.

The capital burden is minimally $350K per year alone. Wow!

And 10 years from now, is that not a $4M PC-12? How much hull value will be lost?

Mike C.

My plane is significantly cheaper to own than a $6M PC-12.

The capital burden is minimally $350K per year alone. Wow!

And 10 years from now, is that not a $4M PC-12? How much hull value will be lost?

Mike C.

My plane is significantly cheaper to own than a $6M PC-12.

The capital burden is minimally $350K per year alone. Wow!

And 10 years from now, is that not a $4M PC-12? How much hull value will be lost?

Mike C.

Chip's fee is a flat rate.

Chip's fee is a flat rate.

If you got a lot of money to spend.

If you don't, then older will get you a lot more airplane.

You have to consider cost of money in current times of high inflation and interest rates. If you buy an expensive airplane, that dominates the equation. You either are paying a lot of interest on a loan, or you are losing a lot of value in possible investment return and inflation value loss.

Not considering cost of money is delusional for the typical owner flown aircraft.

Mike C.

Just because someone doesn't use the same equations as you when making a purchase, doesn't make them "delusional", Mike. That's a bit of a broad brush from where I sit.

Hell, if nothing else, their purchases MAY, someday, allow people who use YOUR metrics, the opportunity to buy at what you consider more equation friendly digits.