It's funny how today's piece of crap airplanes were once yesterday's rock stars; speaking from the standpoint of many passengers. I remember flying her in to VIS a few times way back when I was a new hire. Sometimes the plane was empty so we would go flaps 45 and see how tight our short field landing technique was. Empty Bro's can stop on a dime at sea level.
Regarding the Brasilia, I'll steal Bumblebee's words from a thread a few years ago, "
She'll always be my first love." Something like that....
Yes Seggy it did have an autopilot and an APU, but you still had to put on your big boy pants to handle it and fly it.
I don't regret one second of the seven years I spent operating it. The Brasilia has brought me safely through severe icing, severe turbulence, 30 knot plus gusty crosswinds every summer, (thank you old St George airport and Cody,WY) and more Rocky Mountain snowstorms and thunderstorms than I care to remember. It also let me experience the beauty of the entire Pacific coast along with the Western United States.
Finally the pilot community was always relatively small and so you formed a closer bond with the men and women who flew it. Many of us have moved on, but still retain close ties with those we flew with on the Brasilia. When I'm an old geezer. . . .well, an older geezer than I am now, that is what I will remember best. Lots of great people and memories.