One thats lacking is the single FMS. On Saturday, fractional provider Avantair grounded its entire fleet of about 60 Piaggio Avanti twin turboprops to conduct a comprehensive examination of all Really thinking nothing of it, I booked a flight from LAS to Orange COunty Ca today (coming back tomorrow). His record is pristine and out of Vegas, PS Albany has treated him so bad. Web Conserve water to avoid overloading the septic system. Thanks guys, By this I mean the Evo turns through the same number of degrees as your feet move on the pedals until you put in a sustained input when the full nosewheel deflection of 50 degrees is felt and the turning circle feels extremely nimble and asymmetric braking is not needed. While its fleet was grounded, Avantair outsourced trips to third-party charter operators or, in some instances, told customers it was unable to conduct their flights, a spokesman told AIN. This press release was issued by Avantair late last night: AVANTAIR UPDATE ON VOLUNTARY STAND-DOWN OF OPERATIONS. In a jet this would have resulted in a go-around from 10 miles out. After wed checked figures at 380, we headed down briefly to FL 320 on the way back to Dallas. Viewing this report requires Adobe Reader be installed on your device. When Flying first flew the Avanti in 1990, we predicted that its great fuel efficiency would be a big selling point, and that has been true. Again, the landing flare was very slight, and on touchdown, Lorenzo took control, selected beta on the props and we smoothly decelerated with plenty of runway remaining. I call it a three-surface design, with forward wing, main wing and tail. Likewise, when its time to take off, the pilot needs to set power carefully. On the Avanti, each unique characteristic of the aircraft is firmly rooted in function. Being a turboprop, however, it uses a fraction of the fuel jets would use. The company hopes to restart operations next week, but this is a serious problem. The idea behind the Avanti has always been remarkably simple and completely outside the turboprop box. Most charter operators fly the Avanti II with a crew of two. Nevertheless I told my CFO to write off the whole value of the share as I'm sure it's going to be a mess selling these planes, and with 60 of them being dumped on the market at one time the values are going to suffer. Considering the shape of the nose in front of you, this is handy, because the runway stays in easy view the entire time. As of today, about 40 of Avantairs airplanes were back in service after the inspections, and the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based company expects to have its entire fleet flying again by Thursday. I managed the deceleration to approach speed with very small movements of the power levers and maintained final approach speed quite easily. WebThe hydraulically retractable tricycle-type landing gear on the Piaggio Avanti II helps the aircraft to operate from smaller airfields as well with a min take off distance of 869 meters One smart thing I did do was I bought my share as a resale thru a vendor and paid a whole lot less then I would have if I bought straight from Avantair. Flying the Avanti II P180 Avanti Oxygen System. They caught a wing and oveturned, but everyone was safe. The Piaggio Avanti EVO is the third generation model of Piaggios flagship model. He was up for a 10k raise after gaining seniority and they cut his pay the DAY before he was supposed to get the raise. As an owner I would think twice about renewing my contract and go with a company who cares about its customers safety, including employees. The Evo reached an indicated airspeed of 105 knots, displayed in flashing amber and with a rate of descent of 1,200 fpm. We rotated at 105 knots, which is pretty darned fast for a turboprop, using about half of the available 7,000 feet at KDTO. I stayed on the flight director as we climbed, quickly getting into IMC and getting rapid-fire climb-and-maintain clearances along the way. At FL 250 it was still better than 2,000 fpm at 170 knots indicated. Piaggio can do it, too. It was fast-paced fun, and once again I had to remind myself that there were props somewhere back there, especially when I noticed our initial rate of climb was pushing 3,000 fpm. Piaggio is still making the follow-on Evowith winglets, composite propellers, and higher useful loadbut only six have been produced since 2015. Piaggios appearance at the Singapore Airshow in February lifted hopes somewhat that the design can survive. These were retracted as we accelerated toward 160 knots. When the crew tried to explain that MYF was below approach minimus due to the CAT B limitation, the owner used abusive language and accused them of lying. Fortunately that was in 2007 and we sold it right before the crash. The Avanti feels very stable and is easy to maintain altitude in while hand-flying compared with other airplanes in and around its class. FlightAware General. Perhaps its greatest asset is being the worlds most eco-friendly, twin-turbine business aircraft. ^ Goyer, Robert (19 April 2012). "Piaggio P.180 Avanti II". Flying. Archived from the original on 9 June 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2017. Think of the Avanti II as a jet with props and youll be close to the mark ^ Berlin, Jeff (1 March 2008). Frequent heading changes are required to stay in the area and this allowed me to quickly get a feel for the Avanti. So as fast as it is at cruise, its block times suffer as a result of the climb speed and relatively low Vmo (260 indicated) and Mmo (Mach 0.70) limitations. In simpler terms, that means the engines maintain their 850 shaft horsepower to a higher altitude thereby increasing true airspeed of the airplane through the thinner air. The Avanti takes that formula and pushes it to the design edge, achieving that performance with a great deal less power than in comparable jet products and with the best cabin in the class by a long shot. Max range / 1,470 nm. To date, of the aircraft in the fleet that have been inspected, there have been no compliance or airworthiness issues. On the ground, however, the Avantis overflight noise footprint is on the high scale, which is typical of pusher designs. Thats slightly less than 100 gallons per hour, a figure light jets simply cant touch. Did the Captain make a huge mistake doing a fast post flight after a butt-chewing from an owner? I followed the start procedure with one eye as I did this and observed Villi checking the power lever at idle, switching on the fuel pump, and setting the start switch to start. At 13 percent Ng, he moved the condition lever to ground idle with the starter switch shut off at 40 percent Ng and the power lever to flight idle. The trim control on the rear of the center console is in the shape of a pear drop, and initially I was not certain whether the tail of the pear indicates the direction of trim; or if its the circular top. For private owners, charter customers and fractional owners, the big cabin is a major selling point. So to Don, you dont happen to live in Vegas do you? I selected terrain on my PFD to map the coastline. As the flaps travel, there is a nose up pitch that is easily counteracted with slight forward pressure on the column and trim. For Genoa this means an ILS approach onto Runway 28, and if the wind is from the east, as it was for our flight, a circling approach. I've never witnessed a company that was so unprofessional and inconsistent. The P.180 Avanti Evo has a wow factor that is not present with many other twin turboprops of a similar size. Contact me at Atomicapril @ gmail.com. Arriving at the FBO there, the crew were shocked to find the owner and his colleague outside the FBO, on the ramp, unsupervised, waiting for the aircraft to arrive. The company simply does not have the capacity to handle the demand and corners have been seriously cut to try to cover that demand with inadequate resources. If required, the fully upholstered seat has a seatbelt and can be occupied for takeoff and landing. Now I find out this has been an issue for several days but they have not sent out any communications to the owners mentioning this issue, nor is it mentioned on their website. Ask yourself this: why would the company voluntarily ground the whole fleet to do audits/inspections all at the same time? The Avanti II's efficiencies can reduce operating costs by as much as 40 percent, according to Bingham. Its a great formula. As the factory-authorized training provider for these aircraft, we have created in-depth, type-specific programs to ensure that pilots and technicians are equipped with the latest in safety training. I started looking at commercial flights, figuring SWA flies there and it would be inexpensive anyway. If Avantair does not make it through this we could probably partner of a cheap Piaggio. Shortly before departure, Villi advised me that the autopilot function of the APS-300 flight guidance system was not available. In ground idle and with power pulled back to idle, the airplane still has a tendency, like many turboprops, to get going too fast, so you need to use beta to keep things slowed down. Companies in trouble do this to avoid the panic of "furlough" status. Furloughs.too bad. He descended to 1,000 feet to position for a visual arrival to Runway 10 with a touch-and-go. That all changed in 2003 when Avantair put the design thoroughly on the map in the United States as a successful fractional-ownership provider of Avantis. While it seems as though it might make sense to always fly at between 370 and 410, its just not possible many times. Piaggios home airfield is surrounded by terrain, and the approach is offset from the inbound course. He placed his left foot at the base of the carpet behind the central instrument panel and stepped forward with his right, placing his foot inboard of the control column and gracefully followed with his left. During the takeoff roll, the left elevator departed the airplane and was found off the side of the runway 3 days later. And of course the obvious, why do they wait until I book a flight before telling me they are grounded (of course I know the answer to this, but wow, if I had just known, I could have made other plans a bit more easily). Bill, I appreciate the info and your honest evaluation. He then lowered the seat and sat down. This story is already out of date, as of today, 10/25/12, the entire is fleet is grounded for the foreseeable future. The approach speeds are very fast by turboprop standards. We continued to decelerate and shortly after selecting landing flaps, I turned toward the hillside on my left to line up with the runway as we passed through 600 feet. The original $5.00 stock traded at .11 cents today, a loss of 98% of its value. Though the very basic levers dont look as though they have reverse capability, they do, though it requires a healthy lift on the levers to get them back over the gate to provide propeller braking to slow things down on the ramp and taxiways. There are ten wholly owned Avanti EVOs in operation worldwide, according to JETNET. My last four years have been spent flying equipment with fly-by-wire controls and the Avantis flying controls are conventionally connected via cables, pulleys, push pull rods, and bell cranks. The lower section, containing two integral carpeted steps, is released by a handle on the left and lowered into position. The wings are held level easily with aileron and a squeeze of rudder. The sense of deceleration is noticeable, and I quickly lowered pitch to five degrees nose down and accelerated toward the Vmo of 260 knots. Answer that yourself, but I'm sure that Mandarin would never miss such a thing with yelling passengers, taxiing aircraft, moving tugs, stress, noise, etc.. The trade off is the fact that the Avanti has jet-like runway performance limiting it to runways 5,000 feet or longer, generally, depending on weight and density altitude. With fully reversionary flat-screen displays with a host of safety utilities, including TCAS, TAWS, satellite weather and more, the avionics suite is top-notch, and Piaggio Aero has been working with Rockwell Collins since the introduction of the Avanti II to add upgrades as they became available. I am disappointed that there has been no communication out to the owners about this grounding and if you go to their website it doesn't mention anything and it looks like business as usual. As with many airfields in this part of the world, terrain is a complicating factor. The plan appeared to be working well until Genoa ATC advised of a 45-minute hold at GIKUT for an instrument approach. You fly final at around 120 knots; when you pull back on the power as you land, the nose rises slightly, the mains touch, and you relax back pressure and prepare to get stopped, a job that is greatly aided by big carbon brakes and extremely effective prop braking. This produced a rate of descent of just over 4,000 fpm, the maximum, as there are no flight spoilers and the gear limit is 180 knots. While I flew, Villi checked the Airplane Flight Manual and the performance graphs corroborated these figures to within a couple of knots at ISA +5. We were cleared through 8,000 feet very quickly and then up to FL350, set up using the flight guidance panel (FGP) on the glareshield and appearing in cyan in the top right hand side of the PFD. chrisallegro January 15, 2010, 6:21pm #1. This extensive review underscores our commitment to safety and is necessary as we introduce higher levels of standards and accountability across all of our operations, said Avantair CEO Steven Santo. I love the Piaggio and Avantair has always been great to work with, but now I am concerned about my share and their financial situation. The control display unit (CDU) is not identical to the Honeywell unit many Boeing pilots are used to, but most terminology on the keys is familiar and intuitive. Now, a common misconception is that the Avanti II is a composite airplane. Furthermore, the required pilot aircraft walkaround or preflight check of the P180 at San Diego before departure to Nevada, could not have missed the absent elevator that had fallen off before arrival, if in fact the preflight had been accomplished at all. At 400 feet, Lorenzo handed me control for my first landing. With the stick fully back, we reached 100 knots indicated but once again, as I released the back pressure and smoothly applied power, we recovered. Where the two designs are in accord is that they are both largely stall proof. On approach, however, the view is excellent. No nose was visible ahead, but down and to the right from my seat I could see the tip of the forward wing and the shapely winglet was at my four oclock. Everyone at the company expects to be unemployed very soon. Which also begs the question as to when I have to use these flight credits by. Once there, I found the cockpit comfortable. 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