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and ISA temp. But 360 [knots] seems to be a pretty good middle ground. At that speed, we’ll burn around 2,000 pounds of fuel and typically have a tailwind on the way down for what ends up being about a two-and-a-half- hour or three-hour flight. If we get more than a 15 or 20-knot headwind, we will have to stop coming back, but we have gotten remarkably lucky and only had to stop probably ten percent of the time or less.”
As a member of both EJOA and Phenom Pilots, Weber is a staunch advocate for Embraer products and could see himself one day moving up in the product family.
“One of the things that the Phenom is criticized for is its braking. The pedal feedback isn’t conventional, but the actual braking performance is fantastic. I haven’t found it to be a huge inconvenience or imposition. But you’re always sort of aware of it and exercising extra caution around landing distances, particularly if you have contaminated runways. Flying up north, there have been a couple
of times when we’ve landed on ice- contaminated runways, which can require an eye-watering amount of runway length. But we’ve always had the runway length we needed, so it’s been a non-factor. For others, it can be a big limiting factor and is some- thing that we are all aware of,” Weber explained before advising that his only wish for the Phenom 100 would be more fuel capacity.
“A Phenom 300 would be amazing because we’d never have to worry about fuel planning. We could take some more payload and fly a little faster, too. But I have to remember that I was flying pistons a couple of years ago, so I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. I’m thrilled with the 100. It’s a dream come true.”
Weber and his team have been communicating the value of boats to clients for more than a decade, and he’s decided to apply the same formula for success to aviation. As a business and cabin-class aircraft owner, he is uniquely positioned to advise clients in similar positions.
March 2024 / TWIN & TURBINE • 27