Sovereign Pros/Cons

[Bleeds On]

Just wondering what take folks have on the 680 and if there's a better plane on the market in it's class. With that said, short field performance is one of our top priorities, so any comparative aircraft has to have comparable runway performance numbers to the Sovereign.

 

[LJ45]

well, it is best in class for short field. Bad stuff...electric start, Honeywelll Avionics, not as fast as a CL 300.

 

[xrated]

CON-Ugly as Sin!!

 

[spxdriver]

Just wondering what take folks have on the 680 and if there's a better plane on the market in it's class. With that said, short field performance is one of our top priorities, so any comparative aircraft has to have comparable runway performance numbers to the Sovereign.

well, it is best in class for short field. Bad stuff...electric start, Honeywelll Avionics, not as fast as a CL 300.

If short fields is your priority, then the Sovereign is the only aircraft in its class. Wet or dry, at sea level, max weight, your takeoff numbers will be 3500' or less. Usually, on a dry runway, it's 3100-3200'. Landing is around 2200' required with Vref around 95 knots at normal landing weights.

As LJ45 mentioned, the Sovereign isn't airstart. That said, the engine is very slow to start and gets warm; hasn't been a problem though. Honeywell avionics have been great for us, no worse than anyone else. I routinely see Mach .78 - .80 at FL400 - FL430.

The cabin is extremely quiet (quieter than CL-300, Hawker 4000, G-200, and Falcon 2000 IMO). Cabin altitude usually hangs out around 5,000 feet.

I haven't really met anyone dissatisfied with their Sovereign, assuming that they use it how it was designed - 3 to 6 pax for one to four hours, with occasional five or six hour legs.

 

[Bleeds On]

What kind of routing would you be looking at going to Europe? Or better yet, what's a realistic range with a half-dozen pax and bags.

 

[spxdriver]

What kind of routing would you be looking at going to Europe? Or better yet, what's a realistic range with a half-dozen pax and bags.

You can topoff with six pax and bags.
Range is around 7 hours/2,900nm.

 

[BoilerUP]

I'll defer to those who fly it, but it looks like NYC-Shannon *might* be about as far as you could go in a Sovereign; coming out of Gander it looks like you could easily make London, Paris, Munich or Milan. Westbound, Shannon-Bangor would probably be wind dependent but Kef-Bangor shouldn't be a problem.

How does the Falcon 50EX compare with field length requirements to the Sovereign?

 

[Bleeds On]

How does the Falcon 50EX compare with field length requirements to the Sovereign?

Apparently the 50EX has a 5000' BFL, but isn't that considering 4 pax and full fuel? If so, that isn't all that realistic since we'd rarely need full fuel. But, omnijet.com says it's nearly $600/hr more in DOC so that would be a hard sell. Would imagine that 3rd engine is mostly to blame. Jetsearch.com used to have a good comparison tool but it's no longer there. Anyone know of others?