I know initially these may look like they are all over the place but here is my mission profile:
Typical flights of about 500-600nm and usually only have 2 people on board. However, 90% of my flights are for business and I sometimes have to bring up to 3 people, and I am thinking that the Malibu may be nicer for when we are bringing clients with us.
Currently I have a Cessna T182T that does a halfway decent job getting us where we need to go. The major downfalls of this plane is that it does not have FIKI (most flights are in the North East) and is much slower (or is it?) than the three planes that I am looking at.
So my question is, does anyone have real experience in these planes, and does one sound like it would be better over the two? Or, am I missing a plane that would work better for our mission?
What numbers do you use for flight planning in the Malibu? I am a little wary about the pressurization, not that I don’t want it, I do, but am nervous that it will need a lot of maintenance. What has your experience with the pressurization system been like?
Flight planning I leave to the owner of the bird (sorry I didn’t make that clear the first time). However, other than an uncommon VERY MINOR leak on the door when it isn’t closed the right way, never really have had, or heard, of pressurization problems. Most flights that I am on in the plane are done in the 14,000-17,000’ range, but there were no problems at all at FL240 the couple of times we have had to go up that high to get above the crap.
Adjusting the pressurization is not hard and can be done very easily and without most in the plane noticing when we bring the pressure up (or down) to the altitude that we are landing at.
