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Hillaero
half!” My wife of more than 34 years, a family physician by training (now since retired), has been my f lying partner. While we have used our C421C as an integral part of our family travels, she was the hardest part of the sale. She rightly liked the cabin comfort of the C421C and, on first blush, was not a fan of the Citation cabin. However, the journey to convincing her was aided by my mentor Neil Meyer who had flown Citations for 30 years. His conversations about ease of flying, the significant safety enhancements built into a Part 25 aircraft, and the “magic carpet ride” made this aircraft a solid choice.
My wife is now ready to move forward to our next phase of aircraft ownership and travel. The performance and range opens us to locations not available to us before. My oldest son lives on the West Coast, and that trip is well within our new mission profile. From a safety perspective, it appears I will be going to three training events per year (two for my employer and
one for personal). This high level of training has had a positive impact on my insurance cost. My underwriter is insuring me as a single pilot endorsed crew at a very reasonable price. This is quite amazing in this day and age of increasing insurance costs.
Epilogue
As it stands today, I have purchased a Cessna Citation S550 from Central Flying Service in Little Rock, Arkansas. They are a remarkable organization that has treated me in a first-class way. They are currently performing the pre- buy inspections (full Phase 1-5) and my avionics upgrade to dual Garmin 750s. By the time this article is published, I expect to have the aircraft out of the shop and beginning our new journey in jet ownership.
In summary, I think we approached this aircraft with an objective criterion that will meet our f lying needs, mission and costs until the end of my f lying career. Who would have thought –ajet!
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March 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 29