I have been tasked with gathering some info on the early model Citation II and figured some of you may have a bit of info to help out.

The Citation II was picked because it fits the budget as well as the mission perfectly and although great planes the III, Bravo and V have been ruled out for mostly financial reasons.

Do any of you have any info regarding the JT15D-4s on that plane? I have heard they are great engines but wanted to hear your take on it. Also, do those model years have any quirks or things that I should know about?

Just looking for any gotchas or things that I should know during the search. This also includes the SII since that came out in 84'. I know the SII is a better plane performance wise with better wing design (minus the TKS) but I am not sure if it is an overall better value for what you get.

Not a big deal perhaps, but those models did not have the trailing link landing gear which most people consider to be a nice improvement. Make sure you like the avionics also, not so easy to use in the earlier Citations.

I mostly flew a V, which is leaps and bounds over the II performance wise. In all other aspects, it is basically a stretched II.

I flew a II semi-recently, and it flew nice. Straight leg gear, but it landed nicely.

A lot of old IIs have Garmin equipmnet now. JT-15s are a jet PT-6, hard to beat. The Sierra FJ44 conversion may be something to consider, but it may affect your price point.

As far as quirks, the airplane is kinda like a 182, not many suprises. Not exactly a rocketship, but no slouch either. The 500 series success really speaks for itself.

iIfly the be400. we have the jt15d-5 engines. so far, reliable, but it does eat a lot of turbosina. also very loud, it really does turn jet fuel into noise.

Thanks for the good info guys.

I flew a 1979 550.

There is a landing gear STC that brings up the max weight quite a bit. If you have any long range needs this STC is nearly mandatory.

The newer you can get the better. I think you will get a much better value. Our 550 was a bucket. The autopilot got a lot of the captains in trouble in the form of warning letters from the FAA. One captain described the aircraft as a violation waiting to happen.

As far as engines go. The -4 seems like a good product reliable but inefficient compared to a modern design. One of the posters already brought up the FJ44 conversion for the engines. Seems cool because your getting such an efficient engine, but I've never had any experience with this conversion.

The Sierra or Clifford mods will more than double the acquisition cost of a pre-s/n 676 Citation II these days...and at that price point you might as well break down and get a CJ2.

I'd highly recommend doing a dual GNS430W or 530W/430W with datalink weather in a legacy 500-series...or at the VERY least a Garmin 496 with XM.

Many Citation IIs have grown "fat" over the years, with very little (if any) full-fuel useful load with 2 pilots. This is why the weight mod can be very beneficial, offering nearly full seats/full tanks capability.

Cessna Citation Service Centers typically won't service the gear/brakes on any airplane with the Newflight (formerly Branson) gross weight increase mod; this may or may not be a factor for your owner. "Approved" shops like West Star, Duncan, etc. and any other shop would be more than happy for that business...

There are some old threads on PPW that deal specifically with Citation II DOCs, but expect 180gph for budgeting and 355-360KTAS @ 900-1000pph while operating FL370-390.

Thanks guys. The high gross mod would be a must since a lot of the flights are east to near west coast. It would be nice to do it in 1, maybe 2 stops instead of 2 maybe 3.

Wow, that would be a consideration for sure. We didn't see that in the V.

I only flew a II sim (differences for the V), with the exception of 1 trip in a real plane recently. I didn't know that was as serious of an issue. I would want the gross wt. mod too.

It seems like even on new airplanes, payload takes a back seat to other performance areas. Payload may not be as sexy as speed, but like the name says--PAYload.

Hot section inspections are much more expensive on the SII and you need to look for wing corrision on the pre purchase. That being said, you can go faster in the SII.