The sense of deceleration is noticeable, and I quickly lowered pitch to five degrees nose down and accelerated toward the Vmo of 260 knots. The instrument is a dual-purpose gauge showing both torque and interstage turbine temperature (ITT), Tq shown by a green arrow and ITT by a line. The price of the latest Piaggio P180 Avanti EVO is US $ 7.7 Million. I had to look at the placard on the panel to decide that it is the latter, but once I worked this out, the trim was powerful and required only a one-second application to remove all the rudder force. In attempting to understand the Piaggio P.180 Avanti II, you need to begin by forgetting everything you thought you knew about turboprop-powered airplanes. They are a public company and having your fleet grounded is a material issue yet they are not disclosing this issue as far as I can tell. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. What's done in the dark always comes to light. There are ten wholly owned Avanti EVOs in operation worldwide, according to JETNET. But this further action is necessary to ensure every aspect of our operation will allow us to reach the next level of safety and performance and exceed the highest industry standard, said Steven Santo, Avantair CEO. So last saturday I was scheduled to fly from Dallas to Las Vegas at noon. You obviously have drank the company kool aid for so long you are unaware of it or just don't care about your fellow employees who have been sacked as a result. Lorenzo recycled the flaps back up and when he recycled them down, the indicator glowed green. We know this is an extremely difficult period for our loyal employees and frustrating to our devoted owners, said Mr. Santo. Once level, we were rewarded with what was nearly the top speed of the P.180, which was consistently 395 knots bumping up to that magical 400-knot figure on a couple of occasions, those figures at around 800 pounds per hour total. http://www.avantair.com/filings.html. If anyone in North Florida is interested let me know. 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. Landing the P.180, as Id heard previously, is interesting in that the attitude is very flat. At FL 250 it was still better than 2,000 fpm at 170 knots indicated. Cabin dimensions are spacious compared to a Beechcraft King Air and more in line with a midsize jet. We are not infallible, and mistakes have definitely been made, but we do not deserve the acrid bile from those on this board who have obvious agendas and would celebrate our downfall. Avantairs demise, parts scarcity, and maintenance headaches combine to make P180 ownership a challenge. Had this been a real emergency, flight deck oxygen masks are stowed outboard of each pilot seat, readily accessible. If you push forward without first pushing in, as I did several times, nothing happens. I can't speak for the maintenance personnel involved in this, but I know that the pilot and co-pilot were both fired for failure to perform a pre-flight check. 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. Could it happen to anyone else? In other words two failures and occured. Villi took control from me to give me a rest. The biggest problem I had was in remembering that I wasnt flying a jet and that mounted 30 feet in back of me, completely out of sight, were two turboprop engines. 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. 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 caution terrain aural warning was sounding continuously as Villi maneuvered us to the left in visual conditions to fly around the hill, inconveniently placed on the extended certerline of the runway. Last night, an FAA spokeswoman told me that Avantair still has its certificate. Well, pretty much all sold out. There is a lot owners don't know and it is shocking. 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. Avanti II appeared for the 2006 model year with higher thermodynamically rated engines. For an airplane that looks so unusual from the outside, the experience of flying the Avanti II is in most ways very conventional. The airplane has been constantly improved over the past decade, with new interiors, higher max takeoff weight, higher Vmo and avionics upgrades galore. I still recall going into one of the back hangers and see MX personal taking parts off of other P180s and putting them on other P180s. Merry Christmas, kool-aid drinkers. Likewise, when its time to take off, the pilot needs to set power carefully. 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. The forward wing (not to be called a canard, as it has no moving flight controls other than forward flaps) is positioned on the underside of a gracefully sweeping nose and is home to two pitot tubes underneath and, unusually in Western types, has a significant anhedral. Your management sucks! While things have been dreary throughout the aviation industry for the past 5 years, Avantair was the only fractional airline that did not furlough or terminate pilots due to staffing reductions. Findings as to risk: They "couldnt" find a charter in time (by 2pm as I had to be back), so they put me on American Airlines. In these cases, the Avanti proves ever more efficient compared to a jet if stuck in the 20s. It is, instead, a forward wing. The twin turboprop Avanti EVO is the third-generation version of the Piaggios Avanti P.180, a model introduced in the 1990s that led to the creation of Piaggio Aero Industries. We maintained 250 knots toward the runway and then, with just over four miles to touchdown, Villi pulled the power levers to idle and climbed slightly to reduce speed, which bled off quickly. Please specify the source for your statement. Contact me at Atomicapril @ gmail.com. Where the two designs are in accord is that they are both largely stall proof. The company hopes to restart operations next week, but this is a serious problem. The anhedral of the forward wing ensures there is no aerodynamic interference with the engine intakes and assists in stall handling. Today's grounding is the 4th time in 2 weeks they have grounded the fleet, but the previous times they had slowly returned airplanes to service. The use of alloys instead of composites was a purposeful choice for Piaggio Aero, which certified the airplane more than 20 years ago at a time when there were few successful composite models and sheet metal seemed to augur a shorter approval program than plastics did. I know from my perspective, it was going to be close as to whether I was going to use my minimum hours this year (even after being able to roll some to next year). Please note that not all records are available electronically. They are completely disconnected from operations and maintenance and some in the operation would argue 'reality' should be added to that list. 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. Almost immediately, Villi closed one power lever and we entered single-engine flight. Turboprops behave in certain ways, and jets in other ways, but the Avanti II is a true hybrid, a product that blends the best traits from two very different airplane categories to arrive at some third niche, which at present it occupies by itself. P180 Avanti Navigation. Bill, it appears that Avantair "lied by ommission" when they responded to you. Now thats not bad for the performance you get (6 pax plus bags 1300-1500nm). P180 Avanti Oxygen System. Avantair has retained safety expert Nick Sabatini to oversee the project. The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by: 27 occurrences in the ASN safety database, Battle Mountain-Lander County Airport, NV (BAM/KBAM), Piedmont Triad International Airport (KGSO), Greensboro, NC, St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (KPIE), Florida, Flint-Bishop International Airport, KFNT/FNT, MI, Dickinson-Theodore Roosevelt Reg'l Airport (KDIK), Dickson, ND, Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport (KSPI), Springfield, IL, Essex County Airport (KCDW), Caldwell, NJ, Mineta-San Jose Int'l Airport (KSJC), San Jose, California, Genoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA/LIMJ), Denton Enterprise Airport - KDTO, Denton, TX, Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC/KBJC), Jefferson County, CO, Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, MD (BWI/, Aircraft Guaranty Corp Trustee (Operated by Aerovanti, Marathon-Florida Keys Airport, FL (MTH/KMTH), 28 km off Puerto Limn Airport (LIO/MRLM). As we tracked toward this point, Lorenzo handed me back control for the last approach. Its a great formula. P180 Avanti Special Cabin Configurations. "Piaggio gets confirmation of Avanti speed records". AINonline. Aviation International News. Archived from the original on 5 September 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2017. ^ Aboulafia, Richard. Wingspan / 46 ft 1 in My attempt to follow Villis lead to my right seat was not so graceful. Now it will be impossible, since I cant even book my last few trips of the year, because I have no idea if we will be flying. In the process it doesnt hurt one bit that the Avanti II just so happens to be one of the sleekest and most beautiful airplanes ever built. Think of the Avanti II as a jet with props and youll be close to the mark, though in many respects, its not an easy mental shift to make. He said the airplane was slightly right of the runway centerline and that there was a right crosswind. 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