Citation 500/501 info...?

[BoilerPilot]

I've flown the 501 as well as most of the other 500 series airplanes. The main thing I would use caution on is to make sure it's a true 501 if you're paying for a 501. Cessna offered and still offers the option of converting a 500 to a 501 and vice-versa. They change the data plate to reflect the change even. If you get the option try to stay 75 or newer year wise. Anything under 10k hours is probably going to be ok. Like posted before, watch out for the 10k TT inspection.

If you're looking for a a great 135 bird for economy, check out the S/II (S550). Yes, it does have TKS for deice, so there are some issues there. But it has the 560 wing on it (aka 5900# of gas roughly) and the fuel burn of the 550 essentially. We run one four hours with an hour of reserve consistently. In the upper 30s you'll see 375-385 kts out of it.

Good luck...

 

[mavrck]

yeah spot on for the recomendation to upgrade to a C550. We have a 550 and acquired a 501sp also. Took 6 months to add the bird, due to the Feds wanted us to do proving runs to show competency to be able to fly it single pilot. We had NO INTENTION to fly it single pilot, but since it was certified as single pilot we had to show we could do it.

The limitations on the 501 was a drawback. Usefull load was very low. If you plan on just doing very short trips (1-2 hour range), its not too bad. But dont even think about filling the seats and then filling with fuel. Way over gross.

Nonetheless, it was on our certificate for about 5 months before the owner realized the airplane was not going to get any signifigant trips with us. It was a backup to our 560 and 550. It has now moved on to someone else's headache.