Citation II

[Bandit60]

We've brought up the lear 31 to the owner and he wasn't happy with the cabin size. There are plans to increase our runway length to 5500' on the 5 year plan at our airport. The cruise speed of the beech is nice, however for under 2 million we would get stuck with the Collins 850 which seems to be no longer supported. We pushed for a King Air 200 early on to keep the operating cost down, and it would do pretty much everything we need, but the company would really like to graduate to a jet. I'd rather get back to flying one again too, I just wish I could put that extra 1000' of runway on now.

Byei

The King Air is the best choice for the mission you are talking about. However, If they are bent on getting a jet then the Lear31 is you best performer. It is fast and is a good runway performer. The Beech jet has nice room, but you control it by disturbing lift. There has been alot of dual engine flame outs lately. I once flew for a guy that upgraded from a king air 200 to a Citation 2. He wished he would have kept his kingair

 

[Coool Hand Luke]

Byei:

We did the airliner turboprop conversion thing too (looking for lift in the 30+ seat range). We also considered the 328, but with the OEM out of business and something about a frequent and common APU problem we elected to go another route. But the performance numbers were quite nice. With regards to the 550, we have one of those too. I would honestly suggest, for not much more money, going with a straight 560. I've flown the II, SII, V, V Ultra - and of the bunch - the straight V was the best. Just a real solid performer and very little mx issues. In fact, I think we may be in the process soon of making that change, from the 550 to the 560.

Good Luck either way.