I've been looking seriously at B200's, the legs are actually down in the South Pacific and the stage length is 1100 nm with the nearest alternate another 300 nm from that. I wouldn't feel comfortable planning the flight without fuel to the alternate.
Correct me if I'm wrong but the figures Beechcraft gave me seems to indicate 3200 lbs of fuel would be required for the B200, that does not consider flight to the alternate. The Citation I have pinned at about 3500 lbs of fuel for the same route.
My concern with the B200 is that the fuel requirements will eat more significantly into the payload than the CE-550 or S550. The client wants a payload capability for 6-8 passengers with bags. All the airports are at sea level and the temperatures would range from ISA to ISA+15 but a consistent 10-15 knot headwind can be expected based on prevailing winds. The runway is dry and will be refurbished to our specifications, but the size of the atoll is only 3650 feet wide so without major work it can't be extended much beyond 3450 feet. The surface is very similar to compacted coral and quite firm, but we've determined it's formally "dirt".
Heavy equipment will eventually be shipped to the island to extend the runway to 4100 feet but initial operations will be 3450 feet. The client is currently refurbishing an old WW2 dirt strip on some god-forsaken atoll near Samoa and flights have to depart from Pago Pago and must be nonstop.
Last edited by Island-Flyer; 7th May 2013 at 12:03.