PILOT REPORT

B /CA Update:
Cessna’s Enhanced
Citation III
A new avionics suite tops the long list of model
improvements brought together in the 179th
Citation III to roll off the assembly lines.

By RICHARD N. AARONS
January 1990 Document # 2509, 5 pages

Last fall Cessna Aircraft Company stirred up consider-
able excitement, particularly among Citationphiles, with
the announcement of development projects for the entry-
level CitationJet and the long-leg Citation IV, the latter a
derivative of the Citation III. Lost in that flurry of
announcements was the fact that the seven-year-old
Citation III production program was nearing a signifi-
cant block-point change, a time in the manufacturing
run when important improvements are made. Lost too,
at least in some quarters, was the promise from Cessna
Chairman Russell W. Meyer Jr. that the Citation III
would remain in production well beyond the planned
1993 start of Citation IV customer deliveries.
Meyer told B/CA he’s convinced the market for the
Citation III will remain strong, especially with U.S. com-
panies operating from the middle of the North Ameri-
can continent and with European companies taking full
advantage of the opportunities offered by post-1992
(economic deregulation).
In the United States, either coast is within nonstop
reach of a Citation III based in middle states. Compa-
nies based on the coasts, on the other hand, might opt
for the Citation IV with its transcontinental IFR range.
The Citation III was introduced in 1982 and has
been relatively popular with Fortune 500 fleet opera-
tors. It can haul 10 to 13 passengers in high-density
seating, but more commonly carries four to six passen-
gers on legs of up to 2,000 nm (zero wind). The Cita-
tion III is certified to FAR Part 25 through amendment
COPYRIGHT 1995 THE MCGRAW-HILL COMPANIES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
39 and has been okayed for FAR Part 91, Category II
operations.
Citation III project engineers have been listening over
the years to comments-both good and bad-from opera-
tors and have responded on a continuing basis with
engineering improvements. Recently, several planned
enhancements came together in a single aircraft-serial
number 179. This event prompted our visit to Wichita,
where we reacquainted ourselves with the Citation III
and, more importantly, took advantage of an opportuni-
ty to talk with the engineers behind the product
enhancements.
BLOCK-POINT CHANGES
Serial number 179, due off Cessna’s Wichita assem-
bly line in March, is an important milestone for the
Citation III program. Dozens of minor improvements
and several major system and subsystems refinements
appear in this airframe enough, in fact, to have justi-
fied a new letter designation had Cessna been so
inclined. The more obvious improvements include a
new, standard, digital-avionics package, a redefined
interior, and a redesigned (and lengthened) center
pedestal. Behind-the-scenes changes include relocation
of the baggage compartment J-box from the ceiling to
the aft wall, rearrangement of the avionics bay, and
the addition of a second rotating beacon, a fuel-totaliz-
er system, dual nicads and a large (76-cubic-foot) oxy-
gen cylinder to the “standard equipment” list. Sections
 Pilot
Report
of number 179’s nacelles are fabricated of metal, a
significant change Mom the earlier all-composite
nacelles. Other improvements that have appeared indi-
vidually on some recently delivered airframes will
appear together on this airframe. They include: the
removal of the flap system asymmetry brakes (at serial
number 169) in favor of a modified flap controller; a
modification of the floor panel layout (on serial number
170) that enhances maintenance access to compo-
nents under the aft cabin floor; and (on serial number
173), several changes including the rerigging of the
airstair door, redesign of the cabin-seat pedestals and
rework of the lavatory footwell to accommodate large-
footed passengers. The baggage compartment liner
was reworked at serial number 174. Other bits-and-
pieces improvements spread out among the last serial
numbers, and brought together on number 179,
include a new installation for the generator control
unit, maintenance access panels on the vertical sides
of the dropped aisle and a modification to the rudder
stop block. One item on operators’ wish lists- electric
windshields-has to wait for the Citation IV.
AVIONICS SUITE
Cessna chose Honeywell’s digital SPZ-8000 flight
control system for newly manufactured Citation IIIs not
only because of the industry-wide movement toward
all-digital airplanes, but also because the Citation III
often finds itself working in a Fortune 500 fleet, and
the digital avionics suite is likely to be compatible with
those of its larger stablemates. The heart of this system
is Honeywell’s proprietary avionics standard commu-
nications bus (ASCB) and its controllers, which can tie
together five major avionics subsystems-digital auto-
matic flight control system (AFCS), electronic flight
instrumentation system (EFIS), digital air data (DAD),
strap-down attitude/heading reference system (AHRS)
and weather radar.
Dual strap-down AHRSes reduce weight and improve
MTBF by replacing vertical and directional gyros, as
well as rate gyros and accelerometers, with a single
accelerometer package. This unit provides precision
attitude, body rates and three-axis linear acceleration
data needed for flightpath control, malfunction detec-
tion/isolation and aircraft response limiting.
AHRS information goes straight to the integrated
autopilot/flight director computer, which provides fail
operational/fail-passive automatic control. The guid-
ance controller functions almost identically to earlier
analog units (from the pilot’s viewpoint), with the excep-
tion of a new flight level change (FLC) feature. This
mode manages airspeed through control surface move-
ment, thus providing overspeed protection when chang-
ing altitude. The system also includes internal avionics
COPYRIGHT 1995 THE MCGRAW-HILL COMPANIES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
maintenance capability via built-in test equipment
(BITE), flight-fault monitoring and power-up self-testing.
The fault monitoring systems-largely software-can be
used on the ground to diagnose system malfunctions
down to subsystem or board level.
The Citation III nav/com/pulse package is by Collins.
It includes VHF-22 transceivers; VIR-32 nav units (VOR,
LOC, GS and marker beacon receivers), dual RMI 36
indicators, dual DME-42 units, dual TDR 90 transpon-
ders and a single, digitally controlled ADF 462. Also
included in the standard avionics package are Global
Wulfsberg’s Flitefone VI and Bendix/King’s KHF-950
HF communication gear.
The change to the geometry of the cockpit center
pedestal was made to accommodate a wider variety of
navigation/flight management systems. Cessna’s
demonstrator is equipped with dual Global Wulfsberg
GNS-X units. The new layout of the nose avionics bay
enables technicians to access or remove any box with-
out having to disturb its neighbors.
Repositioning the J-box from the ceiling of the aft bag-
gage compartment to the rear wall of that area also
was done to accommodate maintenance. Now, both
the front and rear of the J-box panel can be easily
reached. The addition of dual nicads and temperature
indicating systems to the “standard equipment” list was
done simply because virtually all customers ordered
these options.
Maintainability again was on the minds of Cessna’s
engineers when they repositioned aft cabin floor pan-
els and provided access plates in the walls of the
sunken aisle.
CABIN REDESIGN
The decision to redesign the Citation III’s interior
appointments (or, more accurately, to give the cus-
tomer greater latitude in his selection of interior ele-
ments) was driven again by the fact that this airplane
is a fleet dweller.
Cessna marketers unabashedly point out that many
future Citation III sales are targeted at companies that
already operate large business transports-Gulfstreams,
Dassault Falcon 50s and 900s, and Canadair Chal-
lengers, for example. “We want the executive who is
accustomed to a G-IV interior to feel right at home
when he boards the Citation III,” explained one Cita-
tion sales engineer. “We’ve brought the cockpit up to
world-class standards for the crew with the new avion-
ics package; it’s just as important to bring the cabin up
to the same world-class standard for the passengers.”
Frankly, B/CA spent more time poking around the
cabin than the cockpit. In our opinion, the Cessna interi-
or concepts and their execution are both top rate. This
is, indeed, a mid-size interior in which the heavy-iron
 P ilot
Report

FLYING THE CITATION III

SPECIFICATIONS B/CA editors have flown the Citation III several times
CESSNA CITATION III over the years and have always been impressed with
its crisp, light handling and its maneuverability and
ENGINES
Model 2 Garrett braking. Citation 500-series pilots moving up to the III
TFE731 -3B-1 00 will find most systems and procedures similar, if not
Power 3,600 lb ea. identical, to those of their old airplanes. On the other
hand, they’ll have to get used to a combination rud-
SEATING 2+7/9
der/tiller steering system and what may be the best
WEIGHTS(Ib/kg) brake system in the industry.
Ramp 22,200/10,070 A walk-around inspection gave us the opportunity to
Takeoff 22,000/9,979 examine the Citation III’s absolutely flawless (and riv-
Landing 20,000/9,979 etless) bonded metal surfaces-part of the secret of its
Zero fuel 15,300/6,940
BOW (incl. crew) 13,500/6,136 ultra-low drag profile. Cessna engineers used compos-
Max payload 1,800/818 ites wherever they could on the design-a decision that
Useful 8,700/3,954 has been successful everywhere but in the nacelles. It
Max fuel 7,329/3,331 seems that vibration and heat cycles are simply too
Payload w/max fuel 1,371/623
Fuel w/max payload 6,900/3,136
much for all-composite nacelles on the Citation III and
have presented maintainability problems. The demon-
PERFORMANCE strator we flew had nacelles fabricated of both com-
VMO/MMO 300 kt/0.835 m posites and metal. By aircraft number 180, all nacelle
BFL (ft/m) 20,000 lb (SL/ISA) 5,020/1,530 components will be fabricated of metal. The walk-
21,479 lb (DEN, ISA + 20) 8,264/2,629
Rate of climb (SL, MGTOW) (fpm/mpm) around also gave us an opportunity to experiment
All-engine 3,699/1,127 with the “no-bounce” airstair door. (The door in earli-
Engine-out 805/245 er serial numbers had been rigged without a lock-
Max cert. alt. (ft/m) 51,000/15,545 down mechanism. Thus, when a passenger stepped
Service ceiling (MGTOW) (ft/m) 43,000/13,106
Cruise
off the airstair, the rebound popped the door up to a
TAS, long-range (FL 450) 422 kt chest-high, semi-closed position. That’s why you’ll usu-
Fuel flow, long-range 1,053 lb/hr ally see Citation III copilots casually leaning on the
TAS high-speed (FL 390) 468 kt handrail as passengers disembark.)
Fuel flow, high-speed 1,506 lb/hr The rerigged airstair on our demonstrator performed
Ranges (NBAA, 200-nm alt.)/trip specific range
Maximum payload 1,734 nm/0.33 flawlessly while we played with it. However, after our
Maximum fuel w/avail. payload 1,970 nm/0.34 demo flight-indeed, after we had forgotten all about the
Ferry 2,108 nm/0.36 airstair’s new lock-down feature-we disembarked and
FAR Part 36 Noise (EPNdB) were amazed to see the door slip off the lock and slow-
Takeoff 84.6
Approach 93.8
ly creep up to its embarrassing mid-chest balance point.
Back to the drafting boards!
Climbing into the Citation III cockpit isn’t easy. The
pedestal crammed full of long-range nav. HF comm and
passenger should feel comfortable. The scheme begins EFIS/AFCS controllers-extends right back to the cockpit
with new headliners and window reveals, both aft bulkhead. Stepping over the pedestal and getting
designed to increase light and thus increase passen- the other foot to follow without dragging it across a
gers’ feelings of cabin spaciousness. Seats are mounted bunch of expensive hardware takes a bit of agility.
on fixed pedestals and are fully articulating Tom the Once seated, however, the cockpit is relatively comfort-
seat-pan up. Each seat reclines, swivels and tracks able, although headroom seems a bit tight.
inboard. Armrests adjust to the passenger’s elbow As touched on earlier, any Citation 500-series pilot
height, and the adjustable headrest can be lowered will recognize the Model III’s basic on/off/normal
entirely into the seat back. Foot rests are optional. switches. Because this airplane is set up for two pilots,
Because cabin accommodations are fabricated to the system switches found on the left panel of Series
order on the Citation III, the buyer can customize seat 500 airplanes are on a canted center panel forward of
contour and firmness as desired. Cabin hardware is the throttles in the III
modern and finely crafted. Hinges and locks are heavy, The Citation III’s switch and control arrangement is
and the fit is excellent. highly intuitive. Pilots new to recently certificated FAR
Part 25 airplanes will find that the pre-start and start

COPYRIGHT 1995 THE MCGRAW-HILL COMPANIES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 CITATION III
DIRECT OPERATING COST CHARACTERISTICS Pilot
Report
(High-Speed Cruise)

Stage Block Block Direct

Length Altitude Speed Fuel Flow Cost
(nm) (1,000 ft) (kts) (U.S. gph) Per nm

300 37 367 255 $2.06 checklists seem to contain an endless

500 41 400 230 1.89 amount of checking systems that check
700 41 416 225 1.82
900 41 425 222 1.78 other systems. This complexity has more
1,100 41 431 220 1.75 to do with regulatory matters than opera-
1,500 41 437 217 1.73 tional requirements. Suffice to say that the
1,900 41 438 216 1.72 Citation III has an impressive bunch of
2,100 43 430 198 1.76
“press-to-test-this-system” buttons.
We used the APU to start both Garrett
TFE731-3B engines. Starts were quick
CITATION III and cool. (Most customers opt for an
DIRECT OPERATING COST APU installation.) While Citation demo-
(Per Flight Hour*) pilot Steve McCartney touch-typed our
round-robin flight plan into the GNS-X,
High-Speed Cruise we explored the III’s ground handling.
First-Year Five-Year
Warranty Average Costs
The tiller (actually a palm-size wheel) is
Fuel ($1.80 per U.S. gallon) $414.00 $414.00 on the pilot’s left-side panel. The wheel
Maintenance: provides 75 degrees of left or right steer-
Labor ($47.00 labor rate) 53.69 78.38 ing. The rudder pedals provide six
Material 43.85 89.53 degrees of left or right steering. For most
Garrett MSP Plan 173.30 173.30
Direct Cost: operations-taxi, takeoff and landing roll-
Dollars per hour 684.84 755.21 out-we found we could use the rudder
Dollars per nm 1.71 1.89 pedals alone. The tiller is useful, of
Dollars per sm 1.49 1.64 course, in tight maneuvering situations.
Dollars per km 0.92 1.02
The tiller’s turn authority is about what
*500 nm/575 sm/926 km stage length we’ve experienced in other tiller steering
systems, but its center-return spring is a
bit more abrupt than most.
The flight controls feel entirely conven-
CITATION III tional despite the fact that the ailerons
TOTAL ANNUAL BUDGET are hydraulically powered with a manual
(500 Hours Annual Utilization) reversion. There are four hydraulically
High-Speed Cruise actuated and manually controlled spoilers
First-Year Five-Year per wing. The outboard spoiler on either
Warranty Average side works with the associated aileron to
Direct Cast x 500 Hours $342,420.00 $377,605.00 help depress the down-side wing. Two
Fixed Cost 186,033.00 186,033.00
Total Budget:
center spoilers are used as speed brakes,
Dollars per year 528,453.00 563,638.00 and the inboard spoiler functions as a
Dollars per nm 2.64 2.82 ground spoiler. All spoilers and speed
Dollars per sm 2.30 2.45 brakes can be deployed during flight or
Dollars per km 1.43 1.52 after touchdown. We tried using the
spoilers at both ends of the speed enve-
lope; they are quite effective and pro-
duce minimal rumble and practically no
CITATION III
trim changes.
FIXED ANNUAL COST
Year 1-6 The Citation III is well-behaved
Hangar Rental ($1,300 per month) $15,600 throughout its flight envelope. The air-
Personnel (two crew including fringe benefits) 127,000 plane’s controls feel as solid at FL 430
Insurance: as they do at 16,000 feet. All perturba-
Hull (0.35% on $7.295 million) 25,533
Liability and medical 7,900
tions from trim speed resulted in posi-
Miscellaneous Office Supplies Telephone tively damped recoveries, including
Recurrent Crew Training etc. 10,000 repeated attempts to induce dutch roll
Fixed Cost (per year) 186,033 with the yaw damp off.
*Hangar personnel insurance and miscellaneous costs are all based on reasonable
We ran a full stall series (through the
assumptions for average expense.
break) at middle altitudes and again

COPYRIGHT 1995 THE MCGRAW-HILL COMPANIES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 Pilot
Report

found this Citation to be as smooth as its smaller sib- rate of $173.30 per hour in North America and
lings. We made several approaches followed by land- $190.16 per hour elsewhere.
ings to a full stop. The Model III requires no more pilot Parts costs are based on Cessna’s Guaranteed Parts
compensation than does any other Citation. Program, which covers materials requirements as
The only real surprise with this airplane is the effec- shown in the cost tables at a flat hourly rate. The rate
tiveness of its brakes. They are equipped with a fully applies for 3,000 hours or seven years with a minimum
modulated anti-skid system. If the pilot elects to use charge of 250 hours per year.
aggressive braking on a dry runway, the airplane will Fuel costs used in this exercise are based on a nation-
be pretty much stopped by the time the reversers deploy wide survey of retail prices. Labor rates are “typical,”
fully. Citation III pilots are divided on their dry-runway according to Cessna. Actual first-year maintenance esti-
stopping philosophies. Some “pop” the reversers as mates vary from $70.00 to $125 per hour, the aver-
they deploy the spoilers and apply gentle braking; oth- age cost being $97.54. B/CA
ers use full reverse and pretty much stay off the brakes.
Either way, the airplane responds beautifully. We did
V1 cut drills both in the airplane and in FlightSafety’s
WIDE-visual, FAA Phase II simulator, the latter at FSI’s
Wichita Citation Training Center. Once again, the III
was well-behaved. Pilots on their ways up from the tur-
boprop and lightjet worlds should have no trouble
adapting to the Citation III. If they are challenged at all
by the transition, it will be from forcing themselves to
get up to flight levels in the 40s as soon as possible
after takeoff to obtain the full performance book range
and fuel specifics. This airplane is designed to operate
at high altitudes and has to be at those altitudes to
make its 2,000-nm (zero wind) legs.

OPERATING ECONOMICS
Base price of the Citation III beginning with unit 179 is
$6.775 million. That includes the Honeywell SPZ-8000
flight control system, four-tube 5- by 6-inch EFIS, and
Collins Pro Line II nav/com/pulse radios. APU and inte-
rior are priced separately. Most Citation IIIs will be out-
fitted with APUs. Typical delivered price of the aircraft
should be about $7.8 million.
The accompanying in-warranty, operating-cost
workup was supplied by Cessna. Block speeds and
block fuel flows are shown at high-speed cruise for vari-
ous stage lengths. Block speed includes climb, cruise
descent and a five-minute approach. Fuel includes 150
pounds for a 10-minute taxi allowance.
Cruise altitudes shown are typical flight levels for the
specified stage lengths. Flight at lower altitudes will
increase both block speeds and fuel flows; flight at
higher altitudes or reduced power will decrease them.
Engine progressive maintenance is estimated from
Garrett data at $149.99 per hour for the first 4,500
hours. It includes routine inspection hot-section and
gearbox inspection, extended maintenance and
unscheduled maintenance. Rental, shipping and option-
al engine-service bulletins are not included.
Citation III owners can opt for Garrett’s Maintenance
Service Plan (MSP). MSP-used in the operating cost cal-
culations here-guarantees all engine-related costs at a

COPYRIGHT 1995 THE MCGRAW-HILL COMPANIES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED