Joining the Jet Set

COVID-related risks and international airline travel restrictions have resulted in a worldwide increase in demand for quality single-pilot private jets, and the pilots to fly them. Jets are associated with movie stars and the wealthy, but there is a reality beyond that, a place in which jets fill valuable private, search and rescue, tourism, charter, and other roles.

Further, 40-plus-year-old light twins are increasingly being retired in favour of turbine aircraft like the Cessna Caravan, or Daher TBMs and Kodiaks. There is also a batch of new turbine aircraft hitting the market, aircraft like the Epic 1000, Cessna SkyCourier, and Beechcraft Denali. That means more turbine jobs.

Aviators stereotypically see two types of people: pilots and nonpilots. There are further subsets, for example, you’re instrument rated or not, and either a piston or turbine pilot. Jet pilots can be subject to both envy and admiration, and sometimes, wrongly, the sense that, “I could never do, or afford that.”

So what does it cost to convert to a turbine-powered aircraft, fixed or rotary wing, and what is the best way to go about it?

The rating

Turbine aircraft cost more than piston aircraft to buy, operate and maintain; fly much faster and higher (where fuel economy is greatly improved), burn cheaper and more easily available jet fuel and operate under instrument flight rules (IFR). Turbines