PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Why are Gulfstream II and IIB so cheap?
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Old 10th Jan 2009, 03:10
  #16 (permalink)  
JGSFLA
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: South Florida
Age: 52
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Awesome guys, thanks so much!

See that is the difference of asking people that know, within 24 hours of asking this question in this forum I think I have all the answers I need.

Thank God someone referred me to this place.

Here is what I concluded after reading all the answers and adding my little grain of salt:

Only one person deffended the G II'S and apparently his position was that of either a long time owner/operator of several or perhaps someone trying to sell one. However taken from his own words if I were to maintain that plane using Gulfstream directly instead of a Mickey Mouse operation it would cost me just for inspections anywhere from $250k to $400k per semester that is $500k to $800k a year just to keep that thing "fly-able".

Adding the opinion of the other person the mid life engine inspections could end up costing over $1.5 million and they are due shortly. Then adding insurance, keeping a crew a few surprises here and there, then variable fuel cost and so forth plus the fact that it is a 30+ year old piece of equipment that go figure how safe can be to fly nowadays basically an owner of that type of aircraft could give me one of those FOR FREE and still in the end it would be a bad business for me or anybody that prides him or herself in making sound financial decisions.

Having an airplane is I think a thing of perhaps 50% convenience and 50% pride (from my point of view). But it sounds like not only that kind of business Jet but many others are a major burden if not used very often or perhaps even chartered to recover some of the operating costs.

My other option (to the person telling me about the King Air 350) was perhaps a Beech Jet Premier I (which can be found for about 3 million) for my flights in the USA Canada and Latin America because it has a decent range of about 1500 Nautical Miles and a not so depressing cruise speed and operating that thing is not so much and I can be certified to fly it single pilot eventually (since max take off weight is 12,500 lbs). It is a small plane and I can store it in a fairly small Hangar and Insurance and operating costs make some sense. It has a lavatory and it has configurations of up to 8 passengers plus the cockpit (although 6 pax would be more comfortable I think). It is made by Raytheon and if they make equipment that is military grade they must have incredibly reliable airplanes.

And for the rest of the flights (to Europe) using a commercial airline getting some sort of Corporate or VIP account since I would be booking 10 to 12 people at once in a higher class type of ticket regularly and I am sure with this economy it is not like they are rejecting proposals.

If the Beech Jet experiment would go well I would replicate it buying another one for Europe and keep one in America and one in Europe, that would match the about 6 million of a Challenger. And I would have the "Hassle" of booking commercial and going through the tedious procedures and stupidity of a commercial airport for the cross atlantic flight or then for those I would charter a state-of-the art, almost new, ridiculously overpriced Jet every once in a while when I would feel like burning money in a very stupid and not so sensitive way (then I would feel so much remorse and think of kids in africa and so forth..).

When looking at the Beech I looked at Cessna CJ's the Citation Mustang (what a joke with those cruise speeds) and also even the Eclipse E500 (but then I learned about the baknkruptcy and all the troubles and even funny incidents with avionics and software and their constant litigation in pretty much any country one wants to visit).

Does the Beech Premier I and Airline discount program sound more like a solution for my 40,000 to 60,000 nautical miles and a top $600k yearly budget for flights?

Oh BTW thank so much to everybody.

You guys are awesome.. with the exeption I guess of the guy that was a little bit condescending saying people with money pretty much have no "sense". I think if you make large sums of money you kind of have some sort of "sense" at least for some important things right? (otherwise how do you end up making serious sums of money?, well of cours there can be luck with like the lotto or inheritances or maybe doing something illegal or dishonest but in general if you make serious money I guess you cannot be that stupid after all..) I did not have "sense" when I was trying all sorts of businesses and doing any kind of work to make some money but then eventually you learn to have "sense" then the money comes..
Plus If I come to ask the experts something before making my decision isn't that what you would call gathering some "sense" by doing some brainstorming with intelligent and knowledgeable people so then you can come to some sort of consensus...

I love the internet! Not only can you make massive money in here but you can also solve all sorts of issues no matter how sophisticated and nowadays it only takes hours to do so..

I cannot even begin to imagine the piles of crap I would have heard from people trying to sell me their Airplanes had I gone directly to see a few of them before getting some sound advice.

One can always say this: if the persons giving you their opinions/advise do not see the opportunity of financial gain / loss then you will get an honest opinion...

Thanks so much!
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