looking for info on the Westwind I & II

P

Pilotbob34

Well-Known Member
I was looking to get information on costs, inspections, performance etc for the Westwind I and II.

Any opinions would be appreciated as would any insight on the difficulty of optaining the type rating.

TIA

-S
 
I flew a Westwind I for a charter outfit for close to 2 years. It was very solid airplane to fly and also my first jet. We did our initial training at simuflite DFW, it was somewhere along the lines of 2.5 weeks long (~10 days ground and the rest in the simulator). It was my first type and I completed the course at 800 hours straight out of a CFI job. If you are willing to study and ask questions you will not have a problem. There is not any EFIS to mess with, just on old cruddy FMS which I didnt even use. I think alot of Westwinds have been equipped with a Garmin 530/430 combo, the ones that I flew were. I believe the Simuflite sim has been moved to SimCom in Orlando, I have never been there so I am not sure about their training.

As far as the maintenance, boss man always mentioned how much brakes and other parts ended up costing. I think there are only a few authorized parts manufacturers on some of the major parts (like brakes) and they are able to charge an arm and a leg. We had the -3D engines and they were kept on MSP. You can probably find performance data on any number of websites, it has good range and great external baggage compartments with lots of room. There are also some pretty unique nicknames for the airplane...good luck!
 
We have a II with -3D engines. It was a very cheap buy and we have not had anything break in 80 hour so far. I don't have an hourly cost number but I'm sure you can find one. We burn 1800 pounds of fuel the first hour then 1500 pounds the second hour and 1400 pounds every hour after that cruising between Mach .74 and .78 depending on weight. It holds 8700 pounds without the AUX fuel. The longest leg I have done was just a little over five hours and we landed with 1800 pounds of fuel. It will make it to the east coast from the west coast every time. The best part about the airplane for us is the inspection interval. We do not fly much and the Westwind does not have any calandar items on the mx sheet. It only needs an inspection every 200 hours. On the Falcon we needed an A check every six months. In the Westind we will probally do an A check every 18 months. It is also a big airplane for the money. It is a bitch to land nicely and uses a lot of runway when it is hot and heavy. The brakes are very expensive, roughly $10,000 each. They were $2,200 each on the Falcon.

Training was easy. I went to Simcom and they did a great job. It's an easy airplane to fly. Let me know if you have any questions.

Alex.
 
With over 4000 hours in the Westwind my only comment is the aircraft will not kill you in the air. It will try to kill you on the ground! Watch wet runways and do not use T/R's or you'll be sideways.
 
We have operated a 1 for thirteen years. Very reliable plane. Like most jets, there are some expensive parts. Regarding the wet runways comment, I have had it hydroplane only once. But there was a good half to an inch of standing water on a runway that had no crown in it. It has a heck of a set of brakes.

I did my type at SimuFlite FTW. It was my first jet and came out of a King Air 200. It wasn't difficult. I had hoped the insurance company would require a mentor pilot, but they didn't. So after just a couple practice legs with just the crew - off we blasted with passengers. We kept away from anything under 5000' for the first six months though. Thats about a minimum runway anyway unless you are light and the runway is not contaminated.

We don't have a lot of long legs so average about 250 gal/hr. Most operators are down around 230 I think.

Trimec at FTW are the experts on that plane. They do a great job.

SimuFlite sold the program to SimCom in Orlando. They do a good job and upgraded the visuals on the sim.

Hope that helps!
 
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