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me, we always end up flying my Porterfield (65HP antique airplane), a Super Cub, or one of the smaller niche airplanes that invariably are at my airport, bypassing the jet-fuel- burning, fast-and-fancy airplanes that are also in the hangar. We agree that “flying is flying is flying” and that the joy of flying is what is best, and any airplane scratches that itch. If you fly the space shuttle long enough, it can get boring, too. In fact, flying is not supposed to be exciting in the sense of a roller coaster at an amusement park. It is supposed to be exhilarating in the challenge of doing it well, of flying with precision, and just about any old airplane will work to achieve such lofty goals.
Flying a new airplane should be fun and exciting and exhilarating at first, but that excitement will eventually wane. Flying at FL410 and doing 350 KTAS is neat, but you never hear of jet pilots really boasting of joining the “400 MPH club” or the “500 MPH club” once they are past the rookie stage of jet flying. Cruising at such speeds is not exhilarating because it is happening eight miles up in the sky, and the world doesn’t appear to be moving very fast from such heights. Your senses are not tantalized. The flashiness and speed of a jet will be fun for a little while, and then it is nothing more than flying. At that point, you may be left with an empty wallet and only a few cool stories to tell your grandkids.
So, if you sell your SETP and buy a jet, there is a significant chance that you will at some point look back fondly at your SETP experience, longing for the days when a fill-up cost less than $1000, and for recurrent training where you actually got to fly an airplane with a world-class CFI in a non-evaluative scenario, and you’ll be reminded of your glory days when you could land at the short strip next to the golf course.
If you’re considering moving up to a jet, I encourage you to consider the M700 or the TBM960. Either of those rockets will cruise over 300KTAS, carry four people and bags from any state in the center of the union to the farthest corners of the continental USA, and impress anyone who knows how to do math. You can take off from Kansas on any given day, and your range rings on the G3000 will encompass all of the 48 continental states. Either are wonderful airplanes with a panel better than most jets, and they are the perfect airplanes for a person who looks over the fence and concludes that the grass possibly looks greener in the jet world.
I’d argue that that jet-grass may not be so green. But if it is indeed greener, it is so only because of the immense amount of fertilizer required to make it so. Fertilizer is expensive. Choose wisely.
Joe Casey is an FAA-DPE and an ATP, CFI, CFII (A/H), MEI, CFIG, CFIH, as well as a retired U.S. Army UH60 standardization instructor/examiner. An active instructor in the PA46 and King Air markets, he has accumulated 16,000- plus hours of flight time, with more than 5,200 dual-given as a flight instructor. Contact Joe at joe@flycasey.com or 903.721.9549.
October 2024 / TWIN & TURBINE • 9