HondaJet Impressions

[Heavy Set]

Friend of mine flies a B200 King Air for an operator on the West Coast and his boss is now talking about adding a HondaJet. I have looked at the website and read a few articles about it. Funky design with the engines on the wings and the Garmin G3000 with touchscreen looks interesting.

Anyone taken a look at this airplane? Any thoughts? It is a light jet with 4 seats in the back (size of a Cessna Mustang). From my perspective, the new technology is interesting and should make my buddy's flying easier since he would be a single pilot on both the HondaJet and the King Air.

Thoughts?

 

[rausda27]

I viewed the mock-up at NBAA a few years ago. Small cabin but a nice avionic suite. Last I heard from Honda was that single pilots would require 100 hours with a HondaJet "mentor" pilot before being able to fly it alone. This cost would go to the operator. Personally I think this is a great idea.

 

[ultrarunner]

How does it price against it's Mustang competitor?

Support is key, if you don't think so, ask a Hawker 4000 operator!

 

[LJ45]

I don't care who makes the jet, any new jet needs to prove itself before I would buy one ...and make sure it will be around for a while. i.e. hawker 4000 etc.

 

[johnsonrod]

Why not just buy a used Mustang? It's basically a "proven" airplane unlike the unproven HondaJet.

I guess the HondaJet does give you some ramp presence that would play well in SoCal (where that matters). I remember talking to the owner of a Beech Starship at VNY years ago - cool ramp presence outweighed performance for him....

 

[SENECAII]

Buy an Eclipse!

 

[TMMT]

Mustang...

 

[sleepy]

I think I saw their (HondaJet) sales HQ in the FBO in Rochester, NY (not sure it wasn't in some other crappy place in upstate NY), anyway, I didn't really see any Honda people there. I don't know much about this HondaJet, but based on what I saw I would buy the Hyundai Jet.

 

[acat]

I saw the mockup at nbaa this year. Looked pretty nice to me. G3000, huge baggage area, and the cabin looked quite a bit larger than the mustang. I also think it is about a 420 kt aircraft compared to mustangs 340. Like a lot of people I'd be a little nervous flying it until its out for a while and gets any potential bugs worked out. I think it has a lot of potential.