BBJ (What is the attraction please)

[Graubart 3]

Yes you can? Range of the Citation X is over 3200NM, and as far as I know, London to NY is only 3000?

No, the range is 3070 nm (NBAA IFR Fuel reserve 200nm, 0,82 mach, max fuel, max TOW, zero wind) and distance from EGLL to KJFK is aprox. 3040 nm, so not really a good idea

[CT1 5]

how could you not want the BBJ , Fly any route you want,awsome paint schemes and its your own personal 737that sh#^#^T is sexy

[Renzo 0]

No, the range is 3070 nm (NBAA IFR Fuel reserve 200nm, 0,82 mach, max fuel, max TOW, zero wind) and distance from EGLL to KJFK is aprox. 3040 nm, so not really a good idea

So, this means it still has 45 mins reserve, so, it is a fairly good idea (Y)

[RedSpinnaker 35]

I would imagine the benefits of a BBJ are:From owner's perspective: If you run a global business, being able to bring large parts of your staff with you and conduct meetings while enroute would be a huge benefit. A lot of productivity time is lost in business travelling (even if flying business/first). If you can get more use out of the time you (and/or your employees) are travelling, might be worth the investment.From the pilot's perspective: A) Might be happy to have a job in the first place. :( What I would consider the best part of the job is varied mission profiles. You're likely going into many places, and conducting various flight profiles that you wouldn't see in the airlines. To me that would be the fun & challenge, each flight would likely be unique and preset interesting challenges.But I'm not typed in the a/c and no a BBJ pilot... Just my impression.

[JMEppright 3]

Problem with Citation 10 going westbound across the North Atlantic is that westbound will have headwinds and then the fact that temperatures at altitude are ISA+ meaning quite warm. I also avoid arriving in the NY Metro area on minimum fuel. I've been flying corporate jets into the NY area for twenty years.

[JMEppright 3]

As to why fly the BBJ, some of us prefer to fly boxes, some of us prefer flying hundreds of people. Others of us prefer to fly ultimate success. The ultimate BBJ is Air Force One. Search the web for Mark Tillman. He is an inspirational speaker who commanded AF1 during the Bush years. He gives a talk on the events of 9/11 and also of flying GWB into and out of Bagdad.I personally have not flown at that level but have had the CEO of a company employing 300,000 people and their families come to the cockpit and ask us if he could get us anything. To me it has been rewarding to fly some of the most successful and powerful individuals in the US if not the world. Not to take anything away from those preferring to fly groups.

[Peter James 0]

BBJs are the ULTIMATE! No other biz jet commands as much ramp presense.... I have seen them at HPN (white plains) often and other smaller non-airline use airports you would not think of seeing a passenger airliner. They are gourgeous up close.. and are awesome to watch maneuvering amongst the Cessnas, Pipers and other corporate aircraft. They have great performance due to a lack of passengers and baggage and can squeeze into fields about 4500'. To me, I simulate all private heavy iron flying because I don't have time to do airline routes etc....and pretend that I'm a billionare that can do what he wants, when he wants, and I'd be flying my very own BBJ1, 2 or 3.....it has been done! The corporate heavy aircraft is a booming business as many BBJs are being built, and Boeing's newest 747-8 that's on display in Sunrise Livery IS A PRIVATE VERSION ALREADY BOUGHT!! Going to a middle eastern guy next year I believe. 747s and A380s are private jets now.... they're here...and in my pretend life, I am gunna fly em! haha

[GrahamBu 12]

So, this means it still has 45 mins reserve, so, it is a fairly good idea (Y)

The 10 may be able to make it NYC to London eastbound provided a good tailwind. I looked at the flight planning system I use, and EGGW-KTEB with current winds would run almost 8 hours at at a M82 cruise. Not doable, so a gas n go at CYQX or CYYR is needed. Plus the temperatures at altitude over the North Atlantic can often range up to ISA+10 which makes going high and maintaining speed in the C750 problematic. I've run plans where I tried to use a M84 or higher cruise and it dumps me down to FL380 at 30W. Basically the plan ends up looking like a roller coaster ride. I had to use a M82 cruise or slower to maintain FL430 across the pond, and this was already a plan with tech stops at EINN and CYYR.

[NM5K 1]

My BBS is the 600.. I like it for flights that would normally not be runby the airlines, and often shorter runways. Besides, it's gives me agood excuse to run the 600, which if I stuck to my usual Southwestand Continental routes, would never get used. :(The 600 is kind of fun to fly as a BBS. With the fairly low weightsbeing hauled, it climbs like a scalded house cat, and can easilyzip on up to FL410 no problemo if so desired. I usually rig minewith say about 20 people or so..I realize that the 600 wasn't used as a BBJ by Boeing, or I don'tthink anyway, but I just pretend my zillionaire boss bought onefrom an airline, and had it overhauled as a BBJ. :)As far as playing airline buoy, I run the Southwest 700 probably90% of the time. The other 10% usually Continental, and oftenlonger haul flights than Southwest.. Some using the 900.

[G7USL 117]

So, am I to assume that the obsession to fly BBJ's is because it's easier? lol

[Peter James 0]

No - just fits in with the fantasy of owning what you could own if you had the $$ - I fly the pretend BBJ as I would plan any real life corporate flight I do - exotic destinations with lots of changes thrown in like.......On the way from SFO - EGE the wife calls and says she'll be home sooner than I thought. Now, I can not make it all the way to EGE... I pretend the "boss", or the wife is demanding I land in LAS... so there I go... land before she gets home! haha...no airline will ever allow that kind of op... .but I have flown a real corporate jet for years and real passengers do change their minds enroute.....I had a guy in back suddenly wanting a pizza enroute to California...we were over Utah at FL410..... guess what? We diverted. He got his pizza from a dusty, backwoods airport near Moab. We did it!!

[Brian_A_Neuman 198]

I think the attraction is the same as anything else. If you build it, we will fly it.

[Lseatflyr 0]

There are a few different things being touched on in this thread:On the benefits of owning a BBJ/Private Jet:When you reach a certain level of wealth in your life, your priorities change a little. Time becomes more valuable than money. Sometimes privacy does too, but time is the biggie. For the owner of a BBJ, you can fly long distances very comfortably and bring along as many friends/relatives/colleagues as you'd almost ever need to - usually seating around 19 pax. Even corporate CEOs, the ones who get the most scrutiny for flying private jets, see extreme time savings and productivity increases with bizjets. So you pay your CEO hundreds of thousands of dollars, right? Would you rather pay him that much to wait in line at an airport, experiencing cancelled flights, and missing meetings all the time; or be present when needed and where needed to make sure your company continues to be successful and grow?On the benefits of flying a BBJ/Private Jet in FS:Variety! Sure KLM subcontracts to PrivatAir for daily BBJ service (with 40-some first class seats, I think) between Amsterdam/EHAM and Houston/KIAH... but aside from that and ANA flights to India, how else could you realistically fly a 737 from the middle of one continent to the middle of another? Flying General Aviation, the whole world is in your route network! And there are many things to simulate... for example, every year there are gatherings of the rich and powerful in various places around the world - a biggie being the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland... bring your executive to Zurich/LSZH in February! Also, for Thanksgiving here in the USA, there has been tons of heavy metal (private 762s, 763s, 747SPs, BBJs) heading into Nassau/MYNN from various places in California, Nevada, North Carolina, etc. So you could simulate the real-world business and pleasure movements of the wealthy and the powerful - or you could just fly your own family/friends around! For example, one of my cousins came here to Houston for Thanksgiving from Denver - well, Loveland to be precise. Even though she drove all the way down to Denver/KDEN to catch her commercial flight, I simulated picking her up at Fort Collins/KFNL (MUCH more convenient) and flying her down to Houston/KIAH - which just happens to be closest to my parents' house where she was staying. If it were my house, I could have used Hobby/KHOU or Sugarland/KSGR! ...and I do that all the time. Another example; lots of my coworkers ended up in New Orleans this week, so I'll probably fly a hop from KIAH or KHOU to KMSY with about 10 people onboard to simulate flying them there. Lastly, make up my own excuse to explore something of interest. I've been studying Cuzco/SPZO at work a bit lately, so because of that I've got an interest in trying the approach out for myself. I might make up my own backstory as a reason to go there or just add a few hundred lbs onto the empty weight of my BBJ and fly it down just for the enjoyment of studying the approach a little more interactively.On the subject of simplicity:Yeah, you typically run into fewer operational performance restrictions in BBJs than you do commercial operations since your payloads are really only around 200 lbs to 3800 lbs - but your airplane itself is *much* heavier - 99,000 lbs all the way up to one BBJ1 I know that weighs 102,500 lbs. Simulate putting your wife onboard and taking her to Papeete/NTTA (And since Bora Bora/NTTB is domestic, you have to plan an alternate of Rarotonga/NCRG which is 1+45 away); with a 102,500 lb airplane, 200 lbs of payload (includes her luggage!), and 68,800 lbs of fuel to get there - you're going to have yourself a MGTOW departure of 171,000 lbs after you spend 500 lbs getting to the runway....therein lies the attraction for me. Variety (yet still technical!).-Tony

[Paul Deemer 13]

I have flown from Boston to Dublin with a full load and I still had over an hours worth of fuel cause of the tail winds. Never did it going the other way though. In that scenario would probably be on fumes. I also flew 3,276 nm from Male Atolls (VRMM) in the Indian Ocean to Perth Austraila (YPPH) with 100 pax, 7,000 lbs cargo and after an 8 hour 18 min flight I had about 800 lbs fuel left when I got to the gate.Can't wait to see what I can do in the ER series.

[NM5K 1]

So, am I to assume that the obsession to fly BBJ's is because it's easier? lol

No difference that I can tell.. Except the runways might be a tad shorter insome cases.. :/