Astra SP vs. Lear 60

[capnflyright]

We presently operate a Lear 60 and I would like to collect some info regarding the Astra SP. Cost per hour, range, maintenance, gotcha items, etc. Thank you.

 

[Lead Sled]

I've got over 3,200 hours in all three varients of the Astra (Classic, SP, & SPX/G100). I'm a big fan of the airplane - I don't believe that there is any mid-sized airplane out there that will give you as much "bang for the buck". The big negative with the Astra series is the size of the cabin. It has 5+ hours range and a 3 to 4 hour cabin. Even though, it's still pretty comfortable even with all of the seats filled and it's pretty easy to give your passengers a good ride, it handles turbulence well, and it's pretty easy to get consistantly nice landings.

The wing is one of the best ones out there. Its stall characteristics are about as gentile as a Piper Cherokee. It can carry nearly 3 tons more weight, 20 to 30 knots faster, and nearly 800 NM further than a Lear 35 with just 400 more pounds of thrust. (That's for a Classic or SP - an SPX or G100 will do even better, but they have bigger engines.) Some folks bad mouth the fact that it has boots. (So did I in the begining.) The fact is that the airplane handles ice very well and it is very slow to accumulate ice. I've operated the airplane world-wide in all types of weather and I can count on one hand the number of times that I've ever had to pop the boots in self-defense. The nice thing about boots is that they are "de-icers" not "anti-icers" and don't cost you any aircraft performance when you use them - as opposed to the heated leading edges on some of the other aircraft out there.

Every Astra that I've ever flown has performed better than "book figures". However, like every other airplane out there if you want to achieve book figures you have to fly it by the book - a concept that's pretty foreign to some pilots. Personally, I can usually flight plan for 450 KTAS. Most operators put their operating costs in the $800 to $1000 hour range, but then you can pretty much make your operating costs almost any amount you wish with creative accounting. Fuel burns are right at 2000 lbs the first hour and 1600 lbs every hour after that. The airplane is most at home between FL350 and FL390, but it's not unusual to get it up to 410 and 430 either.

As far as gotchas go, they're few and far between. I always check and make sure that the 47 pound ballast weight has been removed from the nose wheel wheel - the weight is basically there to compensate for the lack of interior when the airplane was initialy flown to the US. It's amazing how many of them have never been removed. This is important because the airplane has a tendency to go out the forward limit with fuel fuel and more than 6 pax. With the ballast weight in the nose, the tendency is aggravated. It's not a big deal, you just have to leave a bit of fuel on the ground and you may have to make a fuel stop on west coast to east coast flights.

Other things to consider...

There is a 100 gallon fuselauge extention tank that comes with the airplane. Personally, unless you routinely fly with 4 passengers or so, I'd leave it out. It provides less than 30 minutes of fuel and takes up about 1/3 of the baggage compartment. Avoid airplanes with the Global GNS-X FMSes, they come in a distant 2nd place when compared with the Universal UNS1-Cs that are also available on the Astras. Finally, talk the boss into an SPX if you can. As good an airplane as the SP is, the SPX is an order of magnitude better. With it -40 engines, it's 15 to 20 knots faster, flies 4,000' higher at any given weight (410 vs 370, 430 vs 390, etc.) and will fly any given leg on less fuel (1800 lbs the first hour, 1400 lbs or so every hour after that.) Coast to coast, non-stop either direction are the rule rather than the exception - especially if you keep the extention tank in the airplane.

We're getting ready to trade up in the near future (Gulfstream or Falcon) and I'll really miss flying the Astras.

Oh well, my fingers are starting to cramp.

Lead Sled