Hypothetical question on transatlantic aircraft selection

Morgan3820 said:
The Pilatus PC-12 is a single-engine turboprop passenger and cargo aircraft manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft of Stans, Switzerland since 1991. The main market for the aircraft is corporate transport and regional airliner operators. Wikipedia
Range: 1,742 mi
Cruise speed: 311 mph
Nice used ones are $2.5 mil

Might work, but it is still a single engine. Are single turboprops reliable enough?
Click to expand...
They are ferried from Switzerland.
 
Why not use NetJets or one of the others? According to this a NetJets 25 hour jet card on a Citation Latitude starts at about $210,000.
 
Last time I looked, for a flight to Europe, Net Jets charged the entire round trip from the USA to Europe, they would drop you and return back to the USA empty. Then they charged you another round trip to bring you home. So 2 round trips charged for a single trip to Europe would probably eat up most of that 25 hour Jet Card.

Been a few years since I researched it though, maybe things have changed.

I think the King Air would be cheaper.
 
Morgan3820 said:
Are single turboprops reliable enough?
Click to expand...

Only you can answer that. And if you have a raft and put everyone in dry suits for the overwater leg, you'll probably survive. Your wife might not appreciate that though...
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Only you can answer that. And if you have a raft and put everyone in dry suits for the overwater leg, you'll probably survive. Your wife might not appreciate that though...
Click to expand...
Depending on route, you will likely never be more than an hour from land. And turboprops [properly maintained!] are statistically "that" reliable.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Depending on route, you will likely never be more than an hour from land. And turboprops [properly maintained!] are statistically "that" reliable.
Click to expand...

Statistics don't mean **** when your engine fails over the North Atlantic. And they do fail:

https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/...essna-airplanes-mokulele-airlines-maui-102313
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/02/07/flight-emergency-landing-engine-fails/
https://www.nwitimes.com/sports/pla...cle_a4062349-d874-5411-83c9-41697c581245.html
 
A really nice Conquest II would work, 300+ knots, long legs, fuel efficient and plenty of room. A really nice -10 one will run $1-1.3 million and they aren't too bad to maintain. You'll have to stop in Gandor, then Iceland, then on to Europe!
 
I did one trip to Europe and back, late 80's, in a GE powered Falcon 20. It had one VLF/Omega, 2 VOR's and 2 ADF's for navigation. We used the Blue Spruce routes, TEB-Goose Bay-Iceland-London going over. On the way back Goose was near minimums on weather so we did London-Iceland-Frobisher Bay-Syracuse, NY-TEB. Our passengers took the Concord over and back. We took our wife's on the Falcon and then met the passengers in London. Over a three week time period we hit Nice, Sardinia, and Geneva. Back then we figured the trip cost 50K for the plane and crew expenses. That did not include normal operating expenses, ie engine reserves, maintenance, ect. It did include fuel, landing, parking, airway, and communication fees. I setup all of our handling myself, I knew several pilot operating all over the world that guided me.

As I understand it starting the end of January 2020 unless you are below FL290 or on a Blue Spruce route you will need Fans 1A+ and that cost a lot, probably more than a Westwind II is worth. Conquest II, King Air 350ER or a King Air with nacelle tanks would probably be a good choice.

More info on Blue Spruce routes. http://code7700.com/blue_spruce_routes.htm

I do not believe Gander is on the Blue Spruce routes.
 
Last edited:
N747JB said:
A really nice Conquest II would work, 300+ knots, long legs, fuel efficient and plenty of room. A really nice -10 one will run $1-1.3 million and they aren't too bad to maintain. You'll have to stop in Gandor, then Iceland, then on to Europe!
Click to expand...

The Conquest II looks nice. Too bad this is all just hypothetical.
 
Last edited:
Morgan3820 said:
Are single turboprops reliable enough?
Click to expand...
Is any aircraft that extremely wealthy mere mortals can afford reliable enough? Nice as they are and capable as they are, a Cessna Mustang or a Premier 1 is still a far cry from an A340 or a 767 operated by a professional crew doing Atlantic crossings day in and day out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top