King Air

[brokeflyer]

i agree with the king air. Likely the greatest turboprop ever built. The piaggio just has too many problems.

 

[Helmsalee]

Piaggio is more like the Ferrari, with all the good and bad that carries.
Helm

 

[RPJ]

300 knots is fast for a turboprop

300 and 350 will do that

405KTAS for a brand new P180. KA great for utility, P180 great for speed/luxury on the "cheap".

 

[rajflyboy]

405KTAS for a brand new P180. KA great for utility, P180 great for speed/luxury on the "cheap".

Don't matter if the elevator falls off

 

[RPJ]

Haha, that was not a problem with the aircraft itself. It was a problem with the MX that worked on the plane.

It attests to the safety of the airplane that half the elevator departed but the plane flew still.

 

[rettofly]

Actually, the Piaggio is the Cadillac of turboprops!

Nah. The Piaggio is the Maserati Cuattro Porte. The King Air is more of a Chevy Suburban or GMC Yukon.

 

[rajflyboy]

Can anyone explain the operating cost difference between a typical king air and a small fleet jet. A Cessna ultra or something similar. I'm assuming this is the reason you don't see king airs in this business.

 

[BentOver]

I know the PT-6's in the 90's I flew burned about 600# and hour at lower altitudes and maybe 450-500#/ hr in the flight levels...... Cruised at maybe 210-215 indicated down low, and maybe 170-180 at FL200 (roughly)

Climbed at maybe 1500 ft/min up to 10,000' and reduced to maybe 700-1000 ft/min up higher...

Again it was only the C-90A/B models, so a 200 or 300 is definitely a lot better... Overall I wasn't that impressed with the speed of the 90's.....But it was a good work horse, I never had a problem in 1000 hrs....

One thing I noticed about the 90's also was that the brakes were pretty weak.... Although just based on it's 100-110 knt REF, it could get into some shorter fields, the brakes didn't do all that well getting the plane stopped really short.

I think maybe for the typical amount it costs to charter a King Air, people wouldn't be willing to buy into it as a Fractional a/c. King Air's are relatively expensive to buy... I think you could buy a smaller Citation for almost the same price as a new King Air. (could be wrong, I've never really compared the $$)

 

[rajflyboy]

pretty much what I was thinking from my memory of the King Air