Airplane Hangar Tour

We share a hangar with several other airplanes, and I took some pictures of them on Saturday while waiting to leave in my beautiful airplane.

Gladys is definitely the best-looking airplane in town. Was there ever really any question?

This pretty little thing is the Israeli Aircraft Astra, better known as the G100 since Gulfstream bought them a few years ago in 2001. The Astra is older than me since it began design in the late seventies. It can seat up to nine people in back and can go pretty fast, too. About twenty knots faster than Gladys at 465 true airspeed, but we will never tell her that.

You can buy them used right now for a cool $2.1 million, which is a smokin’ deal. I am sure it costs a fortune to operate, since those engines were designed in the 1970s and aren’t very efficient for fuel. The Astra has a new big brother called the G200, which I always admire when I see them on the ramp. We won’t tell Gladys that, either.

This is the tail section of the new Citation CJ-4. I wish I would have taken a shot of the whole thing for you, but I was distracted by this shiny paint stripe. Can you see the one that looks yellow-green? That is a very expensive and rare metallic paint that costs three small children to buy. As you walk around, the paint changes colors from blue to orange to purple to green and yellow. It is so unique. Because of its price, you rarely see it in person. These guys did a single stripe down the fuselage, and I shudder to think how much just that one little line cost! Just like cocaine…

Neat little tidbit about the CJ-4? We were debating between this and the Phenom 300 when shopping for a new airplane earlier this year. I am really tickled that the 300 was selected. Gladys is way better, in my opinion. And nope…not biased at all!

This is a group shot of several airplanes in the hangar. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the blue one to the left so you could see. It is an airplane that has held my heart for several years now. Big but sleek. Fast but efficient. If I was buying my dream airplane, this would probably be it.

Meet the (tail section) of the Citation Sovereign. I will try to take a better picture of it next time I’m at the hangar. They are neat airplanes, but most airplanes are pretty neat.

I am just realizing now how many Cessnas and Citations (same company) are in the hangar! This is a Cessna Caravan on floats, and it gives tours of the local lakes and reservoirs for up to eight passengers. The Caravans are known to be work horses and can haul a ton in back. It actually left this morning back to a summer in Alaska, where it will run cargo between cities only accessible by air. Or sled dog. But I think air is the way to go on this one.

So there you have it. A tiny tour of some pretty metal in the hangar we share. I’ll try to do these more often, as there are always lots of different airplanes in and out. And they’re all pretty. But mine is the prettiest of all. Maybe Gladys should have been named Snow White?