New Barron BE58 owner N55VM

[wmburns]

I recently purchased my 1st FSE airplane. A Beech Barron BE58. Tail number changed to N55VM. N55VM was system owned that had been stranded since Nov 2007 at Galion Mun Ohio (KGQQ) with zero fuel. Since there was no FBO, fuel had to be purchased in bulk drums and flown to the airport as cargo. Once fueled my intention was to re-position to the SoCal area for use within the PE coverage area.

All flights were conducted:

• Using real world weather. Some planned flights had to be scrubbed due to weather.
• Max altitude limited to 12,500' (non pressurized cabin)
• Fuel planned so that the minimum fuel on board at destination 45 minutes.
• Followed low enroute charts and charted Victor airways. No direct to's here.
• Some night time flights were done during the day
• Minimum airplane movements with no PAX.
• No time compression.

Over several weeks made 25 flights totally 2504 NM earning v$38,626.62 after expenses. Arrived this morning at Henderson Executive (KHND) after delivering a 5 PAX corporate charter.

Skyvector link: http://skyvector.com/?ll=35.97444985185 ... :A.K2.KHND

Lesson's learned:

• My short field technique needs a TON of work. Over ran the rough asphalt strip at NM53 by a large amount. Didn't help misreading the windsock and landing with a 10 knot tail wind. Strip was very rough with what appeared to be ZERO braking effort. Felt like riding a roller coaster while holding a tiger by the tail!
• First totally blown GUMPS check with a wheels up landing. Really need to make better use of check lists.
• It is possible to earn good FSE v$'s during a re-positioning flight.
• I'm still amazed just how much time it does take to find good assignments heading in the correct directions. Did have some good assignments that had to be cancelled due to poor weather.
• It does take some pressure off the urge to cut time off of the Hobbs meter when the airplane being rented is your own plane.
• Having your own plane doesn't save as much as I expected. If I had rented someone else's plane it would have cost an additional 3,381.24. Which is less than 10%. However it is nice not to pay rent.
• Check to be sure the destination is actually in your sim's database. One flight had to be cancelled after VOR/DME said I had arrived. However there was no field to be found. Was easier to cancel the flight with the lesson learned.

Everybody walked away from the wheels up landing. Would have been a great landing if not for the obvious mistake. Not sure the everyone would have walked away after hitting the trees at the end of NM53.

Looking forward to even more "options" for online PE flights. Need to go work back in some "Alphabet challenge" flights between chasing v$'s.

[David Gilbert]

Fair play to you. My 407 was in Washington and I dismantled it and shipped it to KSAN so it cost me a pair bit to get into the PE area.

[lwilliams]

Great job guys.....a lot of effort should be well worth it!

[Kerbo]

That's awesome, well done.

[stevekirks]

I recently purchased my 1st FSE airplane. A Beech Barron BE58. Tail number changed to N55VM. N55VM was system owned that had been stranded since Nov 2007 at Galion Mun Ohio (KGQQ) with zero fuel. Since there was no FBO, fuel had to be purchased in bulk drums and flown to the airport as cargo. Once fueled my intention was to re-position to the SoCal area for use within the PE coverage area.

I found a cheap Piper Cherokee that I'm saving up for, stagnant since 2008 with very little time on the Hobbs. This post inspired me to earn the FSE money and fly it up and (hopefully) document it along the way. There's a sweet passenger run from L77 to CL35 that can be an easy VFR money maker. I know it's harder to earn money in a smaller plane, but I need to get some use out of my P3D license and the A2A Cherokee.

[bawells]

This was an interesting read, thanks! I just purchased a Cessna 207 Stationair 8 located at K75 in northern Kansas and am embarking on my cross country flight to get it to 46CA. You were not kidding about finding good jobs along the way that keep you headed in generally the right direction and my current prospects have me zig zagging north and south quite a bit as I inch my way west. The first big challenge I had was getting the plane to a field that had fuel available - seems to be a small FSE recession occurring in northern Kansas with a lot of closed FBOs. Fortunately I made my first leg last night with an empty right tank and a left tank in the red from K75 to KLQR..

Also, the Alabeo 207 (just released) is quite nice and features much better sounds, like squeaking struts as you move across the ground and a very pleasing engine note that is much more throaty than the other Cessna models I have from them. Only downside is that it only ships with the GNS530 (and no com2/nav2) and my FSE plane doesn't have a GPS yet, my goal at a minimum is to make enough money to break even on the trip to SoCal AND give Keith some money by buying the GPS upgrade when I get to 46CA. Sort of useless to fly it in the PE area with no coms

[Peter Grey]

I've also taken the plunge and purchased an aircraft to ferry back to the PE area. A nice C-46, cheap as well. Only trick is that it's at OIZB (That's Iran for those who don't have every airport identifier memorized).

So yah I've started that process...

[wmburns]

I found a cheap Piper Cherokee that I'm saving up for, stagnant since 2008 with very little time on the Hobbs. This post inspired me to earn the FSE money and fly it up and (hopefully) document it along the way. There's a sweet passenger run from L77 to CL35 that can be an easy VFR money maker. I know it's harder to earn money in a smaller plane, but I need to get some use out of my P3D license and the A2A Cherokee.

A couple of things to consider. The BE58 only carries 5 PAX which is two more than the Cherokee. While it seems odd to say that in the FSE world, 5 PAX can be a large load. Trying to find a full load is one of the things that added to the time spent searching FSE. So IMO it would be easier to find assignments when the size of the assignment is smaller.

I paid about v$325k for the Barron. So earning v$38k for the trip means that the trip paid for a little more than 10% of the cost of the airplane.

Which gets to the next point. There are TONS of people on FSE that have v$ for aircraft leasing. So instead of saving v$'s to buy, why not lease it? Leasing should be cheaper than renting. The key is to fly enough to cover the ongoing monthly lease.

Person to person deal making is also a big part of FSE. The forums are full of people that reached out to an owner and "made an offer" that was accepted. Perhaps the owner could even lease the airplane to directly to you.

Another option is to rent the airplane that's for sale and just fly it to where you want to go. If the airplane is infrequently used, it's not likely be moved by someone else. This would allow you to earn v$'s while moving it to the PE coverage area. The two downsides of this method are the additional "distance bonus" this is likely to cost. Also paying rent to the owner. But as this experience shows the v$'s earned is much greater than the rent (my numbers don't include rent which is paid to myself. So my results are actually 10% better than quoted).

It took me a while to figure out how FSE handles rent. As an owner you pay rent to yourself. This allows the end of month statement to separate rent cost from operational costs. So this gives you a way to see that you are operating the airplane in a way where the income exceeds expenses including a "soft" rent. Which if done correctly will mean there's always v$'s for the repairs and annuals.

Good luck to you. I hope you have as much fun during your cross country as I did.

>>US for sale
Registration,Type,Equipment,Location,v$ Price,Airframe,,NM frm 46CA
C-FBUM*,Piper PA-28 Cherokee 180,VFR/AP,CYXX,"$149,000.00",9:26,,999
N15929*,Piper PA-28 Cherokee 180,IFR/AP,KRWL,"$165,000.00",18:55,,688
N4388BM*,Piper PA-28 Cherokee 180,IFR/AP/GPS,KRUE,"$165,000.00",18:10,,1167
N-055FN,Piper PA-28 Cherokee 180,IFR/AP/GPS,KNDZ,"$219,649.00",14:42,,1504

[stevekirks]

A couple of things to consider. The BE58 only carries 5 PAX which is two more than the Piper. While it seems odd to say that in the FSE world, 5 PAX can be a large load. Trying to find a full load is one of the things that added to the time spent searching FSE. So IMO it would be easier to find assignments when the size of the assignment is smaller....

<snip>

Registration,Type,Equipment,Location,v$ Price,Airframe,,NM frm 46CA
C-FBUM*,Piper PA-28 Cherokee 180,VFR/AP,CYXX,"$149,000.00",9:26,,999
N15929*,Piper PA-28 Cherokee 180,IFR/AP,KRWL,"$165,000.00",18:55,,688
N4388BM*,Piper PA-28 Cherokee 180,IFR/AP/GPS,KRUE,"$165,000.00",18:10,,1167
N-055FN,Piper PA-28 Cherokee 180,IFR/AP/GPS,KNDZ,"$219,649.00",14:42,,1504

The Cherokee is key for me because:

• It's VFR only and half the price of these listed.
• My lessons are in a Cherokee and I need to practice the checklists, the pattern work and preflights.
• If I start around 46CA their are plenty of simple short runs that I can do in the short time I have available each night

Feedback about the economics are much appreciated. I need to think on this a bit...

[stevekirks]

AAAAUGH!

It's gone. Someone bought it or it somehow aged out. Or a glitch.

I can't believe it. I wish I had the registration that I had written down with me. Is there a way to find a plane on the network?