Question for P180 Pilots

[C425Driver]

I am working with someone to purchase a turboprop. I've heard great things about the performance of the Piaggio but I haven't heard much about the maintenance relaibility and costs. Actually, I 've heard one negative report, but it was from a foriegn military source so I think they're using their aircraft in ways that it wasn't designed for. Can anyone offer some insight on this?

Thanks,

C425Driver

 

[Senior_Citizen]

I never flow in the Avanti p180, but I read years ago, that has some reliability issues with the flap system, also the wheel brakes, and its performace may be heavy degraded in hot days much more than a Jet, but Piaggio is preparing a new version with more power, new cockpit and some other improvements, it's logical to think that the avanti II will be much more reliable and outperform the previous one, but must to prove it, its current backlog is for q3 2008.

But considering it's price and performance and cabin size, really is a bargain, but if you want a solid investiment, you must to consider the new cessna CJ2+, smaller but faster and by far more reliable (our current CJ2 with near 1500hr TT and about 800 landings has an absolutely perfect dispatch rate:100% , no schedeuled or un schedeuled flight was delayed or canceled in our operation).

 

[Geronimo4497]

I'd be interested to hear what some of the avantair folks (frax compnay with P180s) have to say about this machine. It looks like a nice plane, and sounds very interesting when it departs.


I think there are only about 50 or so of them in the US right now. Parts/Service issues? I dunno, but am curious.