"2011 DIRECT"... - Cessna

Aircraft Spotlight
Citation 500: 24,775 Hours
and Still Counting
On June 6, 1973, Cessna delivered Citation 500-0087 brand new from the factory in Wichita, Kan. At the time,
President Nixon was winding up the Vietnam War and dealing with the Watergate scandal that later that year
would bring about his resignation. Gas cost 40 cents a gallon, and the Chevrolet Monte Carlo was Motor Trend’s
Car of the Year. “My Love” by Paul McCartney and Wings was the number one hit song in the United States.
In 1973, the first cell phone call was made and the cash-dispensing ATM was invented. Medical air transport
was just a fledgling industry. And Wayne Carr, who later in life would become President and CEO of Air Trek Air
Ambulance, had just completed an Air Force technical course and was transferred to Minot AFB to become an
ICBM electronics specialist.
Air Trek Citation Keeps Going
A lot has changed in the 38 years since then. But one thing has remained constant. Like the famous Energizer
Bunny, Citation 500-0087 just keeps going and going and going. So far it has flown 24,775 hours, 16,000 of those
since Air Trek Air Ambulance acquired it in 1991. And it doesn’t look like it will be retiring any time soon.
Air Trek, one of the nation’s oldest air ambulance services, is a family-owned and operated air medical program
that has been providing aeromedical transportation services from its Punta Gorda, Fla., base since 1978. Today,
Wayne Carr heads a successful medical air transport business, overseeing a fleet of three Cessna Citations, two
Cessna 414s and an “underutilized” Westwind. “I’d really rather have another Citation II at this point,” Carr says.
He credits his 70’s stint in the Air Force with helping him to finance his aviation pedigree.
“I was a private pilot and was just starting to use my GI Bill to get my Commercial, Instrument, Multi & CFI. The
GI Bill was one of the main reasons I joined because I could never have afforded to get the advanced ratings
otherwise,” he says.
Get Up, Get Going
Carr is impressed with the reliability of the company’s three Citations, 500-0087, 500-0252 and a Citation II: “We
fly them all the time. They still do the job. They still get up, get going, and do what we need them to do.” Air Trek
operates Serial Number -0087 about 300 hours a year, and in a recent busy month, the company put nearly 80
hours on it. The Citation II also logged 99 hours that month. Carr is philosophic when it comes to answering
questions about age of his airplane.
“When you’re going on 30 years’ worth of making a living in aviation, and the vast majority of those operating Citations,
there are a lot of stories,” he says. “They’re just good airplanes. And when people look at it and say, ‘Well,
it’s a high-time airplane,’ I say it is a Part 25 airplane built to the same standards that a 737 is built to. And the
737 is not even getting broke in until it has 25,000 hours. So, if it’s built to the same standards, it can keep going.”
Serial Number -0087 is a classic today, an early model Citation that is the fleet leader in total flight time for the
great line of Citations, now numbering more than 6,000, that have followed it into aviation history as the most
popular business jets ever.
Just a Way of Life
Previously, Carr was the director of maintenance for the company. “My brother is now the director of Maintenance;
I’m the chief pilot now,” Carr says. “So I fly them, I work on them, I own them. You know, it’s just a way of
life. My son’s involved now. Started him on his 16th birthday and he still actually doesn’t have a single-engine
rating. I mean, he soloed in a Seneca, and got his instrument in a Seneca. Then we type-rated him and he got his
commercial on his 18th birthday in the Citation.”
Flying for the Carrs is a family affair. CEO Carr has more than 18,000 flight hours himself, more than 7,000 in
the Citation type. While his wife, Bonnie, is not involved in the business today, she is a multi-engine rated CFI,
and was Vice Governor for the Southeast Section of the Ninety-Nines, and a regional rep for the Air and Space
Museum.
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