Cessna Grand Caravan

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Vc Ten
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Cessna Grand Caravan

Post by Vc Ten »

I was thinking if we could purchase a couple of Grand Caravan aircraft. Further to my thread on charter flights a few weeks ago.
I'm increasingly drawn to 2020 as it starts to mature but as we know, it suffers with no va aircraft. (substituting the Airbus as a 1-11, I suppose, is not really the done thing) We could be some time before we get decent add-on aircraft let alone ones that we fly in the va. I just thought the Cessna would qualify age wise and would be an ideal candidate to charter
Dale
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blanston12
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Re: Cessna Grand Caravan

Post by blanston12 »

I don't have any problem with us adding a few C208's to the fleet, maybe even a few King Air's. I think they would both fit in well with our CNB-Turboprop fleet, or should we have a separate charter fleet?

Where should we base them? EGLC would be my first idea but what would work best.
Joe Cusick,

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Vc Ten
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Re: Cessna Grand Caravan

Post by Vc Ten »

Hi Joe. I quite like the idea of a separate charter fleet Maybe we consider if it needs to follow the classic aircraft requirements of the VA currently. We could introduce modern aircraft?
Having a separate fleet, ( many VAs have separate fleets) however gives its own problems of training, ratings, and if we would want non charter aircraft used for charter.
I've flown most of the aircraft in Msfs now and like the caravan and the King Air. The AP seems to perform fine in both ( its probably the same one in all of them).
London City would work. If there was interest these no reason we couldn't charter out of States say KVNY or something like
Dale
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blanston12
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Re: Cessna Grand Caravan

Post by blanston12 »

I was recently trying out the charter using our 747-200F, made quite a bit of profit out of it. I agree that having a 'Modern Charter' fleet would probably be a good idea for aircraft that do not fit within our normal requirements. Do we want all our charter aircraft in a separate fleet? It would help restrict which aircraft which aircraft we want to allow for use as charters and which ones we don't, but then we might need to double up on aircraft normal and charter, but as I type this it occurs to me that aircraft allowed for charter can still be used for normal routes so that may not be an issue.

The King Air 350 was introduced in 1990 and C208 in 1986, does that qualify them for use as classics? Maybe, but since they are still in production maybe not, I think that was part of the reasoning we used when we decided to allow the 747-400.

So why don't we create a 'Modern Charter Fleet', based in EGLC, We can setup some qualifying routes were any aircraft in that fleet can use without having to create separate ones for each type. I will try to set that up with a pair of C208's to start with.
Joe Cusick,

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Vc Ten
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Re: Cessna Grand Caravan

Post by Vc Ten »

Cheers Joe I think that would be good. Dont think it's a problem of charter aircraft being used for non charter as there would simply be no routes. Conversely does it matter if pilots fly charter with our regular fleets. Not really I suppose, provided they are returned to their home base at the end.
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blanston12
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Re: Cessna Grand Caravan

Post by blanston12 »

I created the fleet, purchased two C208B's (managed to find two for sale at Kemble) created a few training routes from EGLC, Dale I have you and I TR's so we can fly them to EGLC, I will try to do one home tonight.
Joe Cusick,

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blanston12
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Re: Cessna Grand Caravan

Post by blanston12 »

I could not stop myself, I got us a pair of King Air 350's. I find that while they both seam to have similar payload capacity, with the 208 you can only fly a short distance with full payload while the 350 can carry a full payload much further. One is in France and one is in Australia, I plan on flying that one home.
Joe Cusick,

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Vc Ten
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Re: Cessna Grand Caravan

Post by Vc Ten »

Been having a nightmare with the Pc hence why its took so long to fly the trs for the cessna. First last weeks update would'nt download, kept showing Error. Ended up, having to delete some registry entries :-O to get it to install. Then the overheating M2 drive problem returned. (This started after installing a second m2 drive for msfs, but it cleared when I fitted a proper heat sink) Now I've put a fan right infront of the drive. Its sited on the mother board just above the gpu card and that's getting as hot as hell. The latest upgrade seems to work the pc harder. I've reduced the frame rate to 30 and touch wood its been ok since then.
Glad we have some King air's I'll get the one in France over. Some screenshots from your trip back from Oz would be good.
Dale
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