Half price to Wgtn?

Press, 10 March 1982, Page 15

Half price to Wgtn?

By

LES BLOXHAM.

travel editor Do you want to fly to Wellington for half what it costs with Air New Zealand ahd without the worry of inconvenient schedules? The sblution flew into Christchurch yesterday: a twin turbo-prop executive '.aircraft that can cruise as high as 29,000 ft and as fast as 280 knots (about 510km/h). At a running cost of about $250 an hour, the aircraft, the Piper Corporation’s new Cheyenne II XL, could fly .seven passengers from Christchurch to Wellington ,?and back for about $54 each. There is only one catch: .the aircraft cost about $l.B .million. / Nevertheless, two sales executives from the Piper company are putting the Chey„enne through its paces in iNew Zealand and Australia Ain a 'bid to persuade large companies that it could be gthe answer to their transport "problems. <,: ;: f’SA’dcording to Mr"' Robert jßfeck. Piper's manager for corporate aircraft sales, several New Zea- . land companies and the Government have shown an inf teresl in the Cheyenne. The aircraft was flown to New Zealand for the sales drive by Mr Andrew Cindric, the company's marketing manager for special projects. With a companion, he island- : hopped across the Pacific from San Francisco, missing i the worst of Cyclone Isaac, < which devastated Tonga. Senior executives of several large Christchurch companies have been taken on demonstration flights. * The performance of the aircraft is impressive. It was airborne 14 seconds after Starting its take-off roll and

had reached an altitude of 1000 ft above the threshhold at the far end of the runway. Seven minutes later |he Cheyenne, with its seven passengers, pilot, and almost full fuel tanks, was 8000 ft above Cust. “What happens if you lose an engine?” one of the passengers asked. “No problem: you just keep on flying, see . . .” replied Mr’ Cindric as the

starboard propeller stopped spinning. A noticeable feature of the Cheyenne was the ease with which the passengers could converse. Even in a climb, engine noise was not excessive and was much quieter than a Fokker Friendship or a Hawker Siddeley 748. It was also free of vibration. The Cheyenne has a maximum range of about 2300 km and can carry 57kg of luggage in addition to the pilot and seven passengers.