Citation; dry tanks 4th approach gear up

[CelticCitation]

Here is a picture of the bird from Flightaware-

http://flightaware.com/photos/view/...1775a1185273d46e26925563f0f3b;tail=N815MA;o=0

Since it is not trailing link, it is not a Bravo. If it never was above FL280, the whole thing sounds impossible to me. There must be something I'm missing from Flightaware, but I wouldn't have thought they would have even three hours of fuel, even with full tanks, at that altitude.

 

[ultrarunner]

I think someone posted on another thread that this bird, which is an older straight 550, that it had the Branson mod. If so, the I suspect they were topped off...

Branson gives you 14,500 take-off if I recall. And the typical BOW's of those vintage 550's is around 8300 lbs.

So topping it off with 5 pax is a no-brainer with the Branson mod.

 

[CelticCitation]

It's been a couple of years since I've flown a II. If I remember right, full tanks was 5000 lbs. What would fuel burn be at 280, ~1400/hr. maybe a little less? Either way, they used all of it.

 

[ultrarunner]

Yep, 5 grand on the fuel, which is why the Branson mod was necessary on the older 550's. Later 550's had 14,300 right from Cessna to correct the problem.

Burn would have been every bit of 700 a side at 270 I'm sure.

 

[CelticCitation]

Pretty ambitious flight planning, even in good weather.

 

[BoilerUP]

...too bad that Branson/Newflight gross weight mod makes a Citation a bastard stepchild in the eyes of Mother Cessna...

 

[Publishers]

How many other airports in 90 miles???

 

[blzr]

Have you ever had the weather at your alternate get really bad, really quickly? It happens. Just wait for the report to come out. There's got to be a piece of the puzzle missing.

There has to be 100 airports within a 50 mile radius of ILM. One of them had to have good viz.

I have actually diverted to my alternalt, when the alt had worse ceiling and vis that the destination...However, the alternate was 10000 ft big airpost and the primary was a 4200 ft strip with a tornado bearing down on it.. It is a good interview story..if anyone was interviewing...