Thanks Jim......I am lucky that I am my wifes husband. We flew on an Embraer Legacy Super one time......nice big jet! The worst part is.....flying public airlines afterwards!!!!

That's how the SCOPE guys roll...

I rode in a client's Citation once. Kinda took the fun out of it though when all they talked about the whole trip was that we should have taken the G4...

The airlines are the BIGGEST reason I have a job involved in private/corporate aviation. Almost all buyers of private jets are looking for the creature comfort, privacy, safety, and on-schedule benefits of ownership, and are willing to pay big $$ for it to escape the airlines. Many of the folks I've met over the years simply buy for the comfortability and familiarity of having the same flight crew up front and the same faces on the ground day in and day out caring for themselves, family, and friends.
It's absolutely incredible the investment not only for the plane but the annual budget to keep it and the people involved (i.e.training) airworthy.

I haven't been out to John Wayne/Orange County in a while- I'll look you up next time I'm lucky enough to visit your area. The last trip made one particular client a very happy new owner; I love it when that happens...

With two neighborhood guy's we had a sort of heated discussion on this! My next door has a Piper Meridian while he's waiting for a Hawker 800. Guy up the road currently has a Falcon 50 and TBM 700.

The guy up the road is the smart one. Hawker 800 has a decent cabin, but is absolutely neanderthal in its systems. After he's owned it for a while, ask him how it does getting him out of Aspen on a summer day (it won't BTW- hot & high perf. is deplorable) It's a real runway muncher- I've had many anxious moments watching Hawkers eat up runway lengths all over the country.
The Falcon 50 earned the label "most versatile business jet ever designed" not long after its certification in late 1979. It's short field performance is spectacular, hot and high no problem, triple redundancy (3 engines)- I could go on forever.....One of your buddies got it right......

The Hawker guy is still mad at me. It's not my fault his 18year old daughter wanted to date a 36 year old!

The other guy is more of a wave as they drive by and sometimes get in chit chat. We have a water board for our area so we socialize at that...

My current debate is with my Brother and his partner. They are looking at Cheyenne's. I keep telling them they should go King Air C90.

Please remind your Cheyenne fan that they haven't been made in decades, so parts support is at near joke level for them at this point for anything but the Pratt & Whitney engines. Beechcraft is still doing well, and a C90 is not only tried and true, but structurally speaking a much better-built aircraft. Traveling in either beats the hell out of driving or the airlines.

You can't have lunch and a cocktail(s) on that.........you LOSE your lunch and cocktail on that!!!

Jim

I'm near/at "The Valley" (the old Valley Girl area - Frank Zappa)..........about 20 minutes from Van Nuys, or 35 minutes from Santa Monica.

At this point in time even driving most places is better then the airlines.

I live almost 4 hrs to Seattle. Small airport EAT (Wenatchee) one commuter airline, that cancels flights when they are not busy. Most times they are late. So you miss your flight in Seattle. A Mooney, Cherokee or even a Saratoga could most likely get me to Van Nuys around the same time as an airline, at times faster. Thats the best way to justify a plane.