Hello all,
Thank you all for your feedback. I thought I would wait a few days to see what I was told before commenting further. Excellent point about the on condition TBO possibly not transferring and potential initial overhauls being needed. I had not considered the former before. It would definitely be a retired airline plane most likely so your advice is greatly appreciated. As far as the Elliot aviation STC for a KA, that looks pretty good but is not listed as an approved STC for a 1900 as I only found five listed for the 1900.
Ewfflyer,
No offense taken as I prefer the no BS, no sugar coating answers as opposed to hearing what people think I want to hear. If someone with more experience than I thinks I have made some faulty assumptions, I want to hear about it. As we know, the beech is typically flown by some of the lowest time professional pilots in the regional arena and with a pretty good safety record. That means a lot to me. I am well aware of the reliability and great reputation of both PT6 engines in general and the top quality aircraft the TBM/PC12 (and I like both planes a lot) are, but I prefer a twin as it will be going to the Caribbean so over water passages will be at least somewhat common. As low as the risk may be statistically speaking, I want the other engine for additional piece of mind, knowing what it will do to operating costs.
You make a valid point about if being regularly operated light why not stick with a KA 200 or 350. I guess part of the appeal is something a little different that is manageable by a non professional pilot and the extra stability and strong redundancy you get with a plane used by the regional carriers (not to say the KA are weak by any means as they are exceptional aircraft). I also believe acquisition costs will be lower on a 1900 as opposed to a KA, especially the newer ones. I will try to get in touch with the flight dept of Meijer and try to take a pilot out to lunch or something as their corporate headquarters is relatively close to me.
My understanding is high speed cruise is around 270-280 knots (I know max cruise is listed as 284 for the D). I haven’t found any definitive numbers on fuel burn but in cruise I hope it will be in the range of 700-900 pph up at 25k. All I have read says max range with full fuel is “well over 1000nm” but that is a little vague. My max range mission is 1321nm so I am hoping that is doable at say 1000 lbs under gross. Most other missions will be under 600nm. My calculations show a useful load of around 1900 lbs with full fuel.
My research also has shown a king air 350 to have fuel flow of 800 pph for the first hour and 600 pph thereafter (yes, you can get down to around 460 pph at 35k). Can you tell my how the 1900 is going to compare to this? Will the 1900 be significantly worse, say 1000 pph +? Are my numbers pretty close here? Let me know what you think.
And again, thank you for you input. It greatly appreciated.
Mike