A Short single pilot IFR flight in the Cessna Citation Mustang (CE-510). I takeoff in light rain from the St. Louis Downtown Cahokia airport (KCPS) and fly an ILS approach and landing into the Spirit of St. Louis Airport (KSUS). It’s a very short eight minute flight between the two airports. When flying Single pilot in instrument conditions, especially on short IFR flights in congested air space, the pilot work load can be extremely high. A thorough familiarity with the autopilot and avionics is a must. In situations like this the autopilot acts as your dumb copilot, faithfully flying altitude and heading while you work the radios and set up the approach. It’s important to have as much of the cockpit and avionics set up before takeoff as possible. This morning I was being vectored for the ILS 26L approach two minutes after takeoff. With two to three minutes to localizer intercept there is very little time to get set up and familiarize yourself with the approach. If you don’t have time to get setup ask for a delaying vector before accepting the approach clearance. Passing to the south of Lambert (KSTL), the approach controller gives us a vector to the right to intercept the localizer. After being handed off to spirit tower I’m cleared to land. Closer to the airport my landing clearance is revoked and the controller directs us to continue. She does this so she can launch another aircraft before we land. After the departing aircraft is rolling down the runway we are again cleared to land. This video includes Air traffic control radio communications and more of the Garmin G1000 instrument panel.
Tag Archives: very light jet
Cessna Citation Mustang Landing at Night Nashville TN
A Cessna Citation Mustang CE-510 Very light jet (VLJ) makes a visual approach and landing to runway 31 at the Nashville, Tennessee airport. Once cleared for the visual approach we follow a Boeing 767 visually to the runway. In this case, a wake turbulence encounter while following the heavy 767 is a very real concern. Its wake vortices are an invisible hazard and flying into the vortices of an aircraft of the size of the Boeing can cause the temporary loss of control or worse for a smaller aircraft. Our strategy to deal with this possibility is to stay above the wake vortices of the preceding aircraft. These vortices sink at 300 to 500 ft per minute and can last up to 2 minutes before dissipating. Since we can’t actually see these spinning horizontal tornado like columns of air that come off the wingtips of the heavy we stay one dot high on the glide slope as we descend to the runway. There is a fair amount of air traffic control communications in the video. Another interesting thing about the video is that this landing is just before the sun comes up. You can still see all the airport lighting and the two bright flashing lights on the approach end of the runway are the Runway End Identifier Lights (REIL’s) their purpose is to aid in identifying the end of the runway at night when the runway is surrounded by bright city lights.
Cessna Citation Mustang Takeoff, landing and Cockpit
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| G1000 Multi Function Display |
A short single pilot Mustang trip from Columbia Missouri to Spirit of St Louis Airport. This IFR trip has low ceilings and visibility on both ends. If you’ve never flown single pilot IFR the autopilot serves as your copilot. The Citation 510 has an integrated Garmin 1000 avionics suite which really makes the whole single pilot IFR experience so much easier. The large panel moving terrain display on the MFD is a huge help with situational awareness. The trip itself is only about 20 minutes long but it’s a busy 20 minutes. IFR COU to SUS with an ILS to 26L.
Cessna Citation Mustang Cockpit
The Cessna Citation Mustang is a sharp looking single pilot certified private jet. Its comfortable cabin seats four passengers and If flown single pilot, the copilot’s seat can serve as a fifth passenger seat. Powered by two fuel sipping FADEC controlled Pratt and Whitney Canada PW615F engines that produce 1,460 lbs. of thrust each, the Mustang cruises at 340 knots, has a range of 1,150 nautical miles, and can climb to 41,000 feet. Baggage is stored in the forward and rear external baggage compartments that hold a total of 57 cubic feet of bags. The cockpit is equipped with the proven Garmin G1000 three tube avionics suite. The G100 provides enhanced situational awareness, systems indications, Nexrad weather, and Jepp Charts. This aircraft is easy to fly, very capable and a lot of fun. It has a low operating cost of $860 per hour and used Mustangs are selling in the 1.8 to 2.5 million range.
Citation Mustang Very Light Jet
The citation 510 is a 4 passenger business jet. It’s powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW615F turbo fan engines and has a max ramp weight of 8,730 lbs. It can climb to 41,00 ft and cruise at 340 ktas with a range of 1,150 NM. Apologies for typo, the mustang has the Garmin 1000 avionics package.
Cessna Citation Mustang Very Light Jet
The Cessna Citation 510 is a 4 passenger business jet. It’s powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW615F turbo fan engines and has a max ramp weight of 8,730 lbs. It can climb to 41,00 ft and cruise at 340 ktas with a range of 1,150 NM. Apologies for typo, the mustang has the Garmin 1000 avionics package.