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Gabriel Ruz, Jr. in the cockpit of his Phenom 100
100 fit my profile and had everything I wanted. We acquired mine in March of 2023 when I simultaneously bought a 2019 Cirrus SR22T that I also fly for local trips.”
Mr. Ruz noted that transitioning to the Phenom and getting his first type rating was a great experience.
“I reached out to Tom and Mary Beth at Norton Aviation and gave them my profile. Based on it, they said we would do four days back-to-back [fly- ing], or seven or ten days, based on your schedule and pace. I had several business trips during training, so we went up to the Northeast a few times. Insurance asked for 75 hours before carrying passengers, which I did and got my type rating in two or three weeks,” he recalled.
“I felt very comfortable in the plane right away and never felt behind it because of my G1000 experience. I had about 600 hours on that platform and probably 700 hours with the G3000. I was never intimidated by that aspect or approach speed because the REF speed is very similar to the TBM. Your rotation speed is also very similar, and the main difference is that you have two engines.”
Of course, some of the differences between the aircraft and others he flew were points of extra attention during his initial training.
He noted that he flew this PT6A-42A- powered bird for about 800 hundred hours, all over the country – to most major airports. Anywhere Mr. Ruz traveled, he flew the M600 until step- ping up into a TBM 910.
Just as with the Piper, he loved this plane but expressed that the ul- timate goal was a twin-engine jet. However, his aviation experience thus far had only included single-engine operations, an obstacle to overcome before transitioning further into the flight levels.
“You need to buy a Baron,” Mr. Ruz was told by his mentor pilot Tom Rau. “Buy a true, twin-engine airplane and fly it for a hundred hours, and then you’re ready,’ he advised when I asked him about my next move. I got a Pila- tus [PC-12], then went backward after that and got a Baron.”
“After the hundred hours I need- ed, the first cross-country trip was to Utah. I sold the Baron there and didn’t fly it back to Florida. With the 100-hour mission accomplished, I started looking at jets. The Phenom
One of Gabriel Ruz, Jr’s aircraft, a TBM 910. He flew this airplane after owning an M600 and before moving into a PC-12.
14 • TWIN & TURBINE / July 2023