Personal Airliner

DavidWhite said:
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Liking the way you're thinking, here...

LDJones said:
All my wife wants is an air stair door. And a red carpet in front of it,
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My wife, too. First time she saw a Meridian taxiing up, she asked, "What's THAT?"

LDJones said:
If money was unlimited, why wouldn't you just pop for an actual airliner and call it a day?! A 757 is a pretty nice ride. I've flown the sim and it's impressive. All weather, high flyer...and you can bring the whole family...and most of the neighborhood.
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Well, how about something a little different - there's a guy flies around here in in a BAC146 airliner based at Meacham Field in Fort Worth (ATC call "BAC Jet"), and those have seriously good short-field capabilities.
 
My friend had the last airworthy Martin 404, I like the look of that plane, it would work for me.
 
In the spirit of incredibly weird coincidences...

We did a some charter today and tonight when I was walking the passengers to the FBO we came upon this...

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It's recognizable even in the dark. Everyone was surprised I knew immediately that it was Harrison Ford's airplane. I didn't tell them it's because I posted a picture of it on a message board yesterday.
 
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Minimum, BE58P. I know Dave described his as a personal airliner at least once, and it seems like the most economical way to get into turbocharged, pressurized twins, though economical isn't a word that should be associated with such birds. ;)

However, I think the King Air 200 is the best overall. It can get into some very short fields compared to jets, and haul a pretty sizable load of people and stuff.

Of course, if you want to go trans-oceanic, you'll need something much bigger and faster (G-V or the like). It'd also be nice to have a small single-pilot jet for when you wanted to go fast but not haul a huge load, like a CJ2+ or Beech Premier IA, or maybe a HondaJet when those hit the market.

Okay, I'm off to buy my PowerBall ticket - Jackpot's finally enough to buy all of these. :D

(OBTW - I'd have a hangar full of fun planes too...)
 
JHW said:
think again. I made the mistake of borrowing a friend's 414 when we were in between airplanes. My wife and daughters decided that was just about the minimum airplane they could bear. When I later bought this little travel air there was no end of whining. I have the turbos for it but they're still in a box on the shelf. I know better than to ask "Honey, we could save some gas if you and the kids would agree to breath through this little plastic tube"
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Most of our customers preferred the Navajo (non-pressurized) to the Commander (pressurized and turbine) from a comfort perspective. Even the Chief Pilot greed the Navajo was a nicer ride for the passengers in back.

Passengers typically don't know whether or not the plane is pressurized. It's seamless enough anyway that they shouldn't notice. Sounds like you shouldn't have borrowed the 414, or else should have bought a Duke.
 
LDJones said:
All my wife wants is an air stair door. And a red carpet in front of it,
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That's pretty typical. Our passengers loved the air stair door, and it does seem to say "I've arrived." My wife and I are happy with the 310, but my mom hates climbing on the wing. I told her she could buy us a 421, quit her whining, or take commercial. So far, she hasn't done options 1 or 2.

What's always funny is when they roll the red carpet out for me on a dog flight. I quickly suggest that they remove it, lest it receive a recoloring treatment.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
That's pretty typical. Our passengers loved the air stair door, and it does seem to say "I've arrived." My wife and I are happy with the 310, but my mom hates climbing on the wing. I told her she could buy us a 421, quit her whining, or take commercial. So far, she hasn't done options 1 or 2.

What's always funny is when they roll the red carpet out for me on a dog flight. I quickly suggest that they remove it, lest it receive a recoloring treatment.
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We made a fuel stop in Springdale, AR on our way to our first Mooney Pilots convention. My wife saw the red carpet rolled out for a Citation and said, "Why didn't we get a red carpet?" I joked with the line guy about it and he said, "I'll take care of that." When we came back from lunch there was a 40' red carpet leading from the FBO to our little M20C!

It was pretty funny.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
That's pretty typical. Our passengers loved the air stair door, and it does seem to say "I've arrived." My wife and I are happy with the 310, but my mom hates climbing on the wing. I told her she could buy us a 421, quit her whining, or take commercial. So far, she hasn't done options 1 or 2.

What's always funny is when they roll the red carpet out for me on a dog flight. I quickly suggest that they remove it, lest it receive a recoloring treatment.
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couple years ago I showed my wife a twin bonanza at oshkosh. We have a travel air. She said of the D50 "It looks just like our airplane, except this one is full size"
 
JHW said:
couple years ago I showed my wife a twin bonanza at oshkosh. We have a travel air. She said of the D50 "It looks just like our airplane, except this one is full size"
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:rofl:

I'd take a 421 if my mom decided to buy me one. Of course, it'd have to be a STOL if I wanted any hope of flying out of my 2800 ft strip. No thanks, I'll just stick to the 310.
 
I heard similar sentiments when I got the 421 after the 340 crashed. The girls really liked the built-in whizzer vs the porta-potty with the privacy curtain that I fabricated from an expandable clothes rod for the car.

JHW said:
couple years ago I showed my wife a twin bonanza at oshkosh. We have a travel air. She said of the D50 "It looks just like our airplane, except this one is full size"
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wabower said:
I heard similar sentiments when I got the 421 after the 340 crashed. The girls really liked the built-in whizzer vs the porta-potty with the privacy curtain that I fabricated from an expandable clothes rod for the car.
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The relief tube was one of my favorite features of the Navajo and Cheyenne. Doesn't require you to finish your Dr. Pepper prior to refilling, which leads to needing more empty bottles.

I've been tempted to install one in the 310 and label it "Busch Light". I told one of my in-laws that the caviar and champagne dispensers were the best features of private aircraft.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
What's always funny is when they roll the red carpet out for me on a dog flight. I quickly suggest that they remove it, lest it receive a recoloring treatment.
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What's the point of the little red doormat the ramp rats put on the ground anyway? It's one of the silliest pathetic things I've ever seen.

Maybe if you're stepping out in 4 inches of soft squishy mud in super fancy dress clothes, sure, but even then it's not big or sturdy enough to do any good...and everything is concrete (often dry, not wet) anyway.
 
fgcason said:
What's the point of the little red doormat the ramp rats put on the ground anyway? It's one of the silliest pathetic things I've ever seen.

Maybe if you're stepping out in 4 inches of soft squishy mud in super fancy dress clothes, sure, but even then it's not big or sturdy enough to do any good...and everything is concrete (often dry, not wet) anyway.
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The point is to impress people who are impressed by such things.
 
wabower said:
I heard similar sentiments when I got the 421 after the 340 crashed. The girls really liked the built-in whizzer vs the porta-potty with the privacy curtain that I fabricated from an expandable clothes rod for the car.
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You know your lav is too nice when people opt to use it rather than walking in to the FBO.
 
I think it's a gesture that the FBO appreciates your business, much like the staffer who holds the door as you enter a restaurant. Especially if the plane that just left had left a puddle of oil on the ramp outside the passenger door.
 
wabower said:
I heard similar sentiments when I got the 421 after the 340 crashed. The girls really liked the built-in whizzer vs the porta-potty with the privacy curtain that I fabricated from an expandable clothes rod for the car.
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How do the built in whizzers get serviced?
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Most of our customers preferred the Navajo (non-pressurized) to the Commander (pressurized and turbine) from a comfort perspective. Even the Chief Pilot greed the Navajo was a nicer ride for the passengers in back.
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I don't think the pax will notice the same differences the pilots will... But I'm sure that in a situation where there's tops at 15K, for example, the pax would much prefer the Commander cruising on top in smooth air with a view than bumping along in the Navajo in the weather.

Of course, they'd probably get over it for the difference in price!
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I don't think the pax will notice the same differences the pilots will... But I'm sure that in a situation where there's tops at 15K, for example, the pax would much prefer the Commander cruising on top in smooth air with a view than bumping along in the Navajo in the weather.

Of course, they'd probably get over it for the difference in price!
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I agree in principle. Again, though, the passengers don't know those details. All they know is crappy weather or nice weather, and whether the beer cooler is full. The latter is very important, especially if you put in Captain Morgan.

The reality is our customers didn't even look out the window most of the time. They were too busy working on their laptops. If it was the end of the day, they were busy emptying the beer cooler.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
What's the shortest runway you can get a 757 into? Might make more sense to buy something with shorter-field capability.
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Anything under 6000' will work. SNA and BUR have seen 'em on regular occasions.
 
fgcason said:
What's the point of the little red doormat the ramp rats put on the ground anyway? It's one of the silliest pathetic things I've ever seen.

Maybe if you're stepping out in 4 inches of soft squishy mud in super fancy dress clothes, sure, but even then it's not big or sturdy enough to do any good...and everything is concrete (often dry, not wet) anyway.
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My wife called the other day from the airport, laughing her ass off because they invited her to "use the blue carpet" for boarding the cattle car on her Delta flight to Boston the other day. One FBO I used to visit, on a slow day, the line guys would run up to the FedEx Caravan pilots and roll out the red carpet for them :rofl:
 
LDJones said:
How do the built in whizzers get serviced?
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If you're in a larger aircraft (typically with a single point I might add) then it's easy. You hook up the blue tube and the poop tube to their respective areas. Empty the poop through the poop tube and put in new blue juice. Easy and you don't get poop on you if you do it right.
The "tray" lavs though.... :mad2: They are literally a tray that comes out from under the seat. The poop sloshes around and then you have to take it into a bathroom or sewer and dump it (btw, it's almost impossible to empty out of the weird square hole completely) and then put in whatever blue juice it calls for. I got one of those once. It had dihariaha and vomit mixed together. Worst day ever
 
Z06_Mir said:
If you're in a larger aircraft (typically with a single point I might add) then it's easy. You hook up the blue tube and the poop tube to their respective areas. Empty the poop through the poop tube and put in new blue juice. Easy and you don't get poop on you if you do it right.
The "tray" lavs though.... :mad2: They are literally a tray that comes out from under the seat. The poop sloshes around and then you have to take it into a bathroom or sewer and dump it (btw, it's almost impossible to empty out of the weird square hole completely) and then put in whatever blue juice it calls for. I got one of those once. It had dihariaha and vomit mixed together. Worst day ever
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:rofl: I don't envy you there.

The Navajo and Cheyenne had a relief tube and a potty (with a tray), but we only used them on ferry flights (i.e. no passengers). Although the passengers knew they existed, none of them were that interested in watering a tree in front of their coworkers, nor were they interested in producing fertilizer. This meant we never had anything to clean up. :D
 
wabower said:
I think it's a gesture that the FBO appreciates your business, much like the staffer who holds the door as you enter a restaurant. Especially if the plane that just left had left a puddle of oil on the ramp outside the passenger door.
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If someone rolled out a red carpet for whatever crap club plane i'm flying i'd be tickled and give them a nice tip
 
Z06_Mir said:
If you're in a larger aircraft (typically with a single point I might add) then it's easy. You hook up the blue tube and the poop tube to their respective areas. Empty the poop through the poop tube and put in new blue juice. Easy and you don't get poop on you if you do it right.
The "tray" lavs though.... :mad2: They are literally a tray that comes out from under the seat. The poop sloshes around and then you have to take it into a bathroom or sewer and dump it (btw, it's almost impossible to empty out of the weird square hole completely) and then put in whatever blue juice it calls for. I got one of those once. It had dihariaha and vomit mixed together. Worst day ever
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Let's say that I'm glad that I fly an airplane with an externally serviced lav these days...
 
wabower said:
I think it's a gesture that the FBO appreciates your business, much like the staffer who holds the door as you enter a restaurant. Especially if the plane that just left had left a puddle of oil on the ramp outside the passenger door.
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Oh, I thought that's why they would tow my Cherokee 3/4 of a mile behind the FBO so that the Piaggio could have my spot :)
 
The rug is on the tug, wherever it goes. When it doubt, flip it out.

bartmc said:
Oh, I thought that's why they would tow my Cherokee 3/4 of a mile behind the FBO so that the Piaggio could have my spot :)
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bartmc said:
Oh, I thought that's why they would tow my Cherokee 3/4 of a mile behind the FBO so that the Piaggio could have my spot :)
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Eh. Piaggio's are a big pain. They fuel really, really, really slowly and are pretty loud on starup. And the GPU plug in is close to the spinny thing. I'd rathe see a Cherokee :)
 
Z06_Mir said:
Eh. Piaggio's are a big pain. They fuel really, really, really slowly and are pretty loud on starup. And the GPU plug in is close to the spinny thing. I'd rathe see a Cherokee :)
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Piaggios also overwork their (one) engine.
 
bartmc said:
Oh, I thought that's why they would tow my Cherokee 3/4 of a mile behind the FBO so that the Piaggio could have my spot :)
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They tow bigger airplanes to the back 40 too when they are in the way.
 
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