Since the travel arrangements were complicated and would require all of us have a lot of time out of the office if we were to fly a commercial jet, we were able to take the owner's private jet, a Cessna CJ3. Most of us had never ridden on a private jet so we were all pretty excited. Upon arriving at the airport and getting to the hangar I saw this!
The owner shares a hangar with the owner of these cool bits, a Range Rover Defender, a Gulfstream 3 (about 20 years old, believe it or not!), and an Aston Martin. The owner's jet is smaller but far more fuel efficient and uses some of the latest engine and cockpit technologies. 
While the private jet was no where as large as a commercial jet, it's far more elegant and comfortable.
The pilot is an employee of the company and is a super guy. He let me sit shotgun in the cockpit and I even got to try some of the controls, including taking off. Granted, his hands were hovering all of the controls but I got to pull the trigger. Jet acceleration is unreal as we got up to over 200 mph on the ground before taking off and then you yank up on the yoke and you're off. I didn't try landing ;-).
We got to Tucson a couple of hours later and a rental car was waiting and we drove up to the ranch. It was a good visit and we got a sense of the business operations and found some opportunities to help smooth operations and accounting and we'll be working on some new technologies in the next few weeks.
It was a good trip and I do have to say that I rather enjoy private jets, certainly more dignified than flying commercial these days! We went a long distance but it was a great experience and a productive trip, much more so than a constant volley of e-mails and voice mails.
As an addendum, an anonymous poster didn't think private jets could be operated by a single pilot. I refer him/her to Cessna's web site.
7 comments:
That is so cool Aron! I wish I could have been there.
I also wish Carrie could have been there! And Sadie and her Montana grandmother.
Doesn't this kind of aircraft require two licensed and certified (for this aircraft type) flight officers at the controls during departure and arrival operations?
As I was told, with the type of instrumentation and automation it does not.
Aron
Not so fast there. The number of private jets that are certified for one pilot I can count on the fingers of one hand.
So what is the aircraft model and type that allows you, as basically a tourist, to call V1 and V2 in the right hand seat?
I won't claim to be an aeronautical expert but I can refer you to Cessna's information: http://www.stratosjets.com/aircraft/Citation-CJ3
In particular, this sentence: The CJ3 is the premier single pilot business jet from Cessna.
Anonymous, if you're still reading, I thank you for your comments and interest in my blog! It's quite flattering and got me to look into aircraft a bit more. You remind me someone I once worked with...
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