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remember pulling the yoke back for the first time and thinking, ‘Where has this been all my life?! This is incredible!’ I was instantly hooked,” she explained.
“Serendipitously, I met Endre about a week later. He was flying a Turbo Commander at the time. How- ever, I didn’t actually go for my pilot ratings until June 2019, five years later. Within a year and a half, I went from zero f light hours up through commercial ratings, CFI, MEI, and a CE-500 type rating,” she said, adding that most of her training was with Endre, now her husband, as her CFI.
When the couple first started dat- ing, there were a lot of miles between them. The distance led Endre to con- sider what plane would best bridge the distance. He ultimately settled on a Citation V, which they now hangar alongside their Twin Comanche and an Aero Vodochody L-39C Albatros at North Las Vegas Airport (KVGT).
“One big part was that I lived in Seattle then, and Steph lived in Min- neapolis. We began thinking about moving to Vegas together. If you draw a triangle around those, that’s 1,200 nautical miles between Seattle and Minneapolis and from Minneapolis to Vegas. This mission was right at the edge of my Citation I Stallion capabilities. Sometimes, we could make it, and sometimes, we would have to stop for fuel. So, I started looking for a 1,800-nautical-mile air- plane,” he recalled.
“I thought brief ly about a Citation II, but I decided the Citation V was more modern and robust. You get the heat- ed wing on the inside and the boots on the outside instead of TKS. And
the reason I got the V was I wanted to keep the capital cost down. So, I was comfortable with a slightly older Cita- tion. But I wanted a Citation because of parts availability and Textron’s superb support. And every mechanic in the U.S. knows how to work on a Citation. You roll up into some little town and have a generator out; you will find somebody who can help.”
Fortunately, he hasn’t had to locate a mechanic in a pinch or wrench on the plane himself in the field (Endre is an A&P and will perform select tasks on his aircraft), so the ability to easily find help is a nice plus. The aircraft also has positive aspects from the ramp and cockpit perspectives.
“I just like the way they look and the way they fly. This model has a gross weight increase STC, so it’s a 16,500-pound airplane. With that, I can get a 1,200-pound useful load with full fuel. And it gets above the weather well, too. We can get up to FL430 easily and then [FL]450 if you need to. It’s just an incredible travel- ing machine. We see about 380 to 400 [knots], depending on temperature, and a fuel burn of about 1,000 pounds per hour,” Endre said.
“The Citation V is the greatest find. It is a great airplane, and we love it. I found this one (1992 model) down in Mexico with the help of my bro- kers. Its owners maintained it only by authorized service facilities in Mexico and the U.S. At the time, it had 3,500 hours on it, which meant it only flew a hundred hours a year. It was in mint condition, except for the interior,” Endre explained.
Stephanie noted that they refur- bished the interior shortly after
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