I’ve drafted an article on buying a new plane and would appreciate comments.
7 thoughts on “Buying a New Plane”
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A posting every day; an interesting idea every three months…
I’ve drafted an article on buying a new plane and would appreciate comments.
Comments are closed.
With respect to the example specification of “we want engines that have been overhauled reasonably recently”, there are two sides to that coin.
Especially with piston engines, and to a certain extent with turbines, “overhaul” is a very ambigous term.
All the FARs require for an ‘overhaul’ is that the engine be diassembled inspected, and reassembled. There is huge room for cutting corners when it comes to overhauls.
As a buyer one must view a recent overhaul with a fair degree of skeptism unless and until presented with proof of what work was actually done during the overhaul.
If all else is equal and the prices are adjusted accordingly there is an advantage to buying a high time motor and getting the overhaul that makes you comfortable, rather than spending the next 2000 hour wondering what corners were cut by the prior owner who overhauled and then sold.
One other remark, have looked at a Baron? Beechcraft (or whoever they are now) just cut the price significantly, you could afford a new one based on your budget.
Barons certainly give you the all weather known ice capablity you want, freight operators like Airnet operate hundreds of them all over the country every night of the year.
New Barons have pretty much the same Garmin glass cockpit and Garmin Autopilot as on the Mustang.
The Baron meets your range specification easily, and. I doubt if it meets your noise spec, but I doubt if any piston twin could.
http://www.raytheonaircraft.com/beechcraft/aircraft/pistons/baronG58/specifications.aspx
Jim: Thanks for the suggestions. I have some Baron time and it is certainly easy to fly (though I’m not sure how well I would handle an engine failure on takeoff). I don’t like the idea of a plane that just plows through bad weather; I want to climb over bad weather. So a P-Baron might work, but that is a very complicated and very old plane at this point. As unreliable as the Malibus have been, I wonder if a 4-year-old Malibu wouldn’t be less trouble than an ancient P-Baron.
Have you considered the Epic line? http://www.epicaircraft.com/Dynasty.html
The Epic LT is the experimental analog of the to be certified Epic Dynasty. Range, payload and performance numbers are impressive. I have been watching this company for a while in my own quest for a suitable Turboprop/light jet.
Joe: I don’t have the patience to wait for an airplane company to complete certification in the U.S. Diamond seems capable of doing new planes quickly over in Austria, but here it just takes forever and it isn’t worth the heartbreak. Consider the folks who thought they were going to get their Eclipse jets in 2003. They’ve been getting around in Toyota Camrys for four years longer than expected!
philg,
Joe Nelson is right: you need to take a serious look at the Epic LT. Full fuel with 6 pax and baggage at 350 ktas…unbelievable, but true! $1.3mil and you can have it in less than a year. You’re right, the certified version is a long ways down the road and when it does arrive will be well over $2mil. Cool thing about the LT, as opposed to the certified Dynasty, is not just the huge price differential, but the fact that you can do all service, maintenance and repair work on the LT yourself! Of course, if you don’t want to you don’t have to; you can pay the long dollar and hire your favorite A&P. It’s very nice to have that option, don’t you think? Trailing link landing gear is nice too. What think ye?
MedicalDavid
David: I have heard good things about the LT. I wonder how they can seemingly beat all of the existing airframes. What do they know that EADS and Pilatus couldn’t figure out? I worry that it will be super noisy inside. “long dollar” for my favorite A&P? My favorite A&P works for $70/hour. I don’t think you can hire a pet therapist for that.