Daily Kos: da Plane - Much, Much More on the eBay Jet sale (and buyer Larry Reynolds)

[mcg]

Daily Kos thread:

http://openthread.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/6/13842/71239/755/589099

[shraby]

1. It must be busy..I can't get it to load.

[ComplimentarySwine]

2. There seems to be a discrepancy

While at one point the article refers to the plane as a turbo-prob, all of the pictures that I can find of Westwind II aircraft show that it has jet engines, and not turbo-props (or any other kind of props, for that matter). At the end of the article, it seems to say that it is a turbo-jet. Do we actually know what kind of plane was sold here?

[mcg]

3. "turboprop" was a mistake. Looks like she now uses a King Air 200 prop-jet,

according to this web page:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=381142&page=3

... The jet wasn't "the governor's." It was operated by the state and, when not being used by the governor to fly between Anchorage and Juneau, it was used to fly prisoners to and from Arizona, etc.

It's not like the governor took the bus after she sold the plane. She fell back on a newer King Air 200, which is itself a very nice prop-jet plane that, incidentally, costs about as much as the Westwind jet.

The King Air is somewhat cheaper to operate, requiring only 1 pilot (though two are often used), but it's much slower. A flight from Juneau on the King Air would take 3.5 - 4 hours, whereas it would take about 2 hours in the Westwind -- a significant difference. The Westwind would also be safer, being able to fly higher and achieve higher elevations faster.

It would be interesting to see a real analysis of how much was saved by selling the plane. When you take into account the $600,000 lost on the transaction, plus any offstting amounts paid to charter private jets, to operate the King Air or to fly commercial with a large retinue, I doubt very much, if any, was saved at all. ...