Professional Pilot, March 2018

Now enjoy flying the Leonardo AW139 Great automation avionics and handling characteristics In the past I really enjoyed flying Falcon 20s in the USCG theyre fun to fly and fast From my days as a military instructor pilot I enjoyed the Beechcraft T6B Texan It has excellent power and rate of climb a glass cockpit a great air conditioning system and is fantastic at aerobatics and teaching students instrument flying Ive really been blessed Ive enjoyed most of the aircraft Ive flown Michael OBrien ATP Helo CFII Leonardo AW139 Captain PHI Cantonment FL Truly enjoy flying both types that I operate now the King Air 350 and Challenger 601 The King Air is such a stable platform to work with It makes an easy task of whatever you ask from it And the Challenger has even more range speed and elbow room Its nice to put the seat all the way back and stretch my legs out or just stand up in the Challenger Neither aircraft is perfect but both are quite enjoyable Ryan Johnson ATP Challenger 601 King Air 350 Captain DC Air Denair CA Enjoyed flying both the Gulfstream V and Beech 36 Bonanza Truly outstanding engineering went into these wonderful aircraft Gay Williams ATP CFI Gulfstream G550 Captain Gay Zena Williams Bethlehem PA Has to be the American Champion Citabria for me It was a great tail dragger to learn on and all out fun to fly King Air B200 is proven dependable and versatile Both are all around great aircraft Rick Lewis Comm Multi Inst King Air B200 Chief Pilot Air Services Spokane WA 20 PROFESSIONAL PILOT March 2018 Cessna Citation Encore is my favorite Lots of excess power for takeoff and quick climb to FL390 Great ground speed too And thrust reversers for those shorter or contaminated runways Excellent machine Too bad Cessna stopped production Would have really been great with the newer avionics packages of today Loren Carson ATP CFII Citation II Encore CE208 Contract Pilot Phoenix AZ A friend of mine made a good observation when he said Your favorite airplane is normally the one youre flying True enough for me and certainly true for my current ride a Citation CJ3 It does everything well and the Garmin G3000 is the absolute best system for general aviation aircraft today Our CJ3 is amazing flies at FL450 and gets there without step climbs every time Range of 1800 nm no problem and easy to fly single pilot Marc Dulude ATP Citation CJ3 Chief Pilot Mild Air Bluffton SC Spent the past 15 flying the gentlemans jet the Hawker 800A Cables and pulleys combined with the bull horn yoke make it a joy to hand fly While many manufacturers have focused on creating aircraft that fly by pressing buttons and occasionally having a pilot use a joystick its good to fly an aircraft that was designed to be flown David Kobus ATP Hawker 800A Chief Pilot CP Air Kensington CT First jet I ever flew was an old 1965 Hawker 1A and thats still my favorite jet But the King Air B200 that I currently fly is the plane I enjoy the most Its a real sweet ride with the Garmin G1000 avionics suite and Blackhawk XP52 engines Keven Christopherson ATP CFI King Air B200 Chief Pilot PacifiCorp South Jordan UT During more than 30 years in the corporate aviation field I was very fortunate to work for a large multinational company operating a large fleet of highly utilized aircraft This afforded me the opportunity to fly aircraft like the King Air C90 Falcon 20 Fairchild F27 227 Gulfstream II Falcon 900 EX and Citation 560 650 750 Each was a fine aircraft when used in the manner for which they were designed They all provided me great fun and satisfaction And at times they all provided challenges excitement and frustration Looking back I believe the most rewarding for me personally was the Gulfstream II Of course today it pales next to the modern versions of that aircraft and all the other new arrivals But at the time I flew the GII I just felt more confident and comfortable in its capabilities than in any other aircraft before or since It did demand attention but also offered power in reserve performance aplenty stable platform handling easy crosswind landings and trailing link gear which always makes you look good It was just plain fun to fly Dick Del Frate ATP CFII Falcon 900EX Citation X Former Av Mgr Chief Pilot CNH America Crossville TN Really enjoyed flying the Bell 206BIII for its versatility Nodamatic suspension maneuverability and auto rotative capability Also the Boeing CH47C Chinook for load carrying capability And it was fun to fly with the stability augmentation system off Was smooth in cruise excellent gun platform great cross country ship Love the PC12 45 too with its short field performance Excellent IFR and cross country platform for medical and cargo missions The venerable Cessna 172 is a perfect training airplane for student and instructor Finally the Gulfstream II and III were great cross country and IMC platforms with fantastic performance John Keller ATP CFI Helo Citation CJ1 Owner Dir of Operations Keller Aviation Services Intl Cave Creek AZ