Sun N Fun '07 Redux

It is great to have "wheels", because there are plenty of restaurants within
a 10 minute drive of the grounds, and the wait times are nonexistent.

Yeah, we were lucky to have (occasional) wheels, too, thanks to our
buds at Flying Colors Glass. We ate off-site several times, and hit
the local Winn-Dixie grocery store once. But it sure would have been
nice if that danged camp store had been open more, mostly for ice and
beverages.

Later, we were in the Flying Magazine booth and someone asked if I was a
subscriber (not anymore - dropped the subscription recently) and would I
care to resubscribe. I told him "No thanks, the magazine's focus has moved
way, way upscale. Today's content is all jets and $100,000 instrument
panels"

They tried to get me to extend, to which I replied that I was already
receiving TWO subscriptions, thanks to the LAST time I "extended" my
subscription at their tent at OSH. That's right, instead of extending
your current subscription, they will start another one, just to pad
their numbers.

And woe to anyone who actually tries to call "Flying" mag's
circulation department to get the situation corrected! It's been
totally farmed out to the same bozos that are selling subs at SNF and
OSH, and they rarely answer.

Completing a nice 4 day vacation, there was a 10 or 15 knot tailwind for my
trip home in nice blue skies (other than the smoke in South Georgia).

We saw a bit of those fires on our way through. Up at 8500 feet it
didn't matter, but it sure looked hazy down lower...

Great show! I wish I never had to leave...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

("Jack Allison" wrote)
Are you sure it wasn't the other way around? Perhaps the "Black" half of
the duo from the Twin Cities conveniently arranged to send "Mont" your way
and paid the kids a handsome price to watch him for a week :-)


That's closer to the truth than you realize. g


Montblack

24 to 32 THOUSAND???

Are you sure?

Wow.

Well, Jim, the average Cirrus pilot is paying $10 - $15K annually for
insurance, from what I've been told.

Makes my $1200/year seem positively reasonable.
--
Jay Honeck

Jay, this reminds me of a time in GA when insurance for certain
operations/types simply wasnt available at ANY price. I think what the
VLJ manufacturers are doing is a great proactive way to sell even more
jets. For anyone in RAP land who might be looking to try this mentor
pilot program, the requirements were pretty low. I dont recall what
the Diamond people wanted, but the Eclipse people only wanted to see
1000 multi and 500 turbine. Seems like an easy way to make some extra
spendoolies as a side job. I have mentored a few polits over the years
and it was fun (Got to fly to some interesting places too).

Morgans wrote:

"Jay Honeck" wrote


Well, Jim, the average Cirrus pilot is paying $10 - $15K annually for
insurance, from what I've been told.

Makes my $1200/year seem positively reasonable.


I had no idea that it was so expensive to insure jets.

I have a hard time seeing how they will ever be able to get the cost down
low enough to make air taxi service with the VLJ's affordable.

Eclipse is quoting around $32K for full coverage on it's 500 for a "fully
qualified pilot" (ie, something around 2000+/500 hour pilot), or $64K for a
newbie.

http://www.eclipseaviation.com/ownership/insurance/

On Mon, 23 Apr 2007 18:44:33 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote:


"Roger (K8RI)" wrote

I can understand the jet (high due to being a jet and the number of
seats) and the Caravan on floats, but on wheels that is almost twice
what they quoted me for a TBM 700 with the Caravan costing less and
being considerably slower.

Can your justify a jet turbine costing more than a turbo prop? Are not jet
turbine aircraft much more safe, mile per mile?
I'll try:-))

The engines (when treated right) are far more reliable than piston
engines.

The cost comes basically due to the pilot they expect and the
environment in which he/she will be flying. Add to that the type of
recurrency training available and the equipment to be used in that
training.

First you start out with the 150 to 200 MPH mind in a 500 MPH airplane
which is no trivial matter. Any one moving up from say a 172 or
Cherokee to a Bonanza or Mooney (simple to high
performance/complex/retract) will have had a small dose of that.
Typically I fly at 7, or 8 thousand. That means planning ahead by
about 40 miles, or 12 to 13 minutes for descents into approaches. The
jet not only flies faster but higher which means thinking and planning
much farther ahead. Instead of starting my descent from 7 thousand 40
miles out, I'd be starting from the flight levels several hundred
miles out. Staying proficient is also much more involved and
requires flying more. In the TBM 700 I would have been spending at
least as much on recurrency training as I would have on insurance
which was a requirement to maintain the insurance.

A jet also requires much more detailed flight planning based on fuel
burn.

BTW; I've known experienced pilots who had as much or more difficulty
with the take off than the landing in a jet. The jet has a much
greater surplus of power than a piston engine, so making the take off
roll and initial climb at full power while reducing power so you do
not exceed the proper speed for the airport area or blast through your
initial altitude assignment can be quite a challenge.

These were a few of the things I could think of.

Matt Barrow wrote:
Morgans wrote:

"Jay Honeck" wrote


Well, Jim, the average Cirrus pilot is paying $10 - $15K annually
for insurance, from what I've been told.

Makes my $1200/year seem positively reasonable.


I had no idea that it was so expensive to insure jets.

I have a hard time seeing how they will ever be able to get the cost
down low enough to make air taxi service with the VLJ's affordable.

Eclipse is quoting around $32K for full coverage on it's 500 for a
"fully qualified pilot" (ie, something around 2000+/500 hour pilot),
or $64K for a newbie.

http://www.eclipseaviation.com/ownership/insurance/

If I'm doing the math right that's about 2% of hull value for the "fully
qualified pilot" and 4% for a newbie. Sounds about right. I was checking
insurance costs for the 601XL I'm building and was quoted $445.00/year on a
$40K hull cost.

I wasn't there this year, but one other other item for the good list was
that Marion Blakey didn't show up. I finally got my Ku band satellite
receiver set up to receive the transmissions from the FAA Production
Studios there, and I caught the "Meet the FAA" session. They said she
had an international travel schedule conflict. (Uh. Ya, right.)

What are the odds of her showing up at OSH?

The TV people there do a pretty nice job. I'm going to try to remember
to record their seminars throughout the year.

I see that the FAA has brought out more ammunition in the power grab
they want in a statement countering the AOPA points.

http://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/...fm?newsId=8747

Matt Whiting wrote:
RST Engineering wrote:

No problem. I'll give T-shirts away at my forum this year to any
female willing to take her shirt off and put mine on during the forum
... on stage.


Even if she has two shirts on? :-)
Damned you Matt, you blew my plan!!!

Margy

Margy Natalie wrote:
Matt Whiting wrote:
RST Engineering wrote:

No problem. I'll give T-shirts away at my forum this year to any
female willing to take her shirt off and put mine on during the forum
... on stage.


Even if she has two shirts on? :-)
Damned you Matt, you blew my plan!!!

Margy

Well, it is still a good plan and you have Jim's word on it! :-)

Matt

Matt Whiting wrote:
Margy Natalie wrote:

Matt Whiting wrote:

RST Engineering wrote:

No problem. I'll give T-shirts away at my forum this year to any
female willing to take her shirt off and put mine on during the
forum ... on stage.



Even if she has two shirts on? :-)

Damned you Matt, you blew my plan!!!

Margy


Well, it is still a good plan and you have Jim's word on it! :-)

Matt
Ok, when's the forum?

Margy (I need a new shirt!)