George I have an intercom I can give you. I took it out of my Baron when I installed a GTN 750 and it worked at the time. You will of course have to fix up the rest of the stuff and find the wiring harness for the outlets etc. Look at it as a housewarming gift for a new BT guy. PM me and I will put it in a box and send it along. I Have no use for it and most guys doing upgrades are going with the built in new stuff so it isn't worth much. You as an A&P can do the work yourself and not get in trouble like the rest of us would

As for those fuel cells. I know the drill having had to do 6 of them on my Baron just after I bought it. I couild have saved 3 of them probably but then they would have been a problem later on and they were just old enough that I would have to be doing them some time anyway

Have a great time, great post and nice plane. Pete Lane

Hi George!
Great story, well writen and very cool bird!
You are wise to take baby steps when flying it at first.
Do be careful of "sitting bird syndrome"
Watch out for dried out gaskets (fuel spider, etc).
Congratulations!

I used to travel to Seattle for business quite often when I was living in SoCal.
Over the weekends I would take the ferry out to the San Juan's. I can only imagine how neat it must be to fly your own plane over that spectacular part of the country. Orca watching from our own plane: Wow!

Welcome to BT!

Peter, I've PM'd, thanks very much.
Luc, the San Juans are indeed a treasure. If anyone's in the neighborhood, consider a side trip to Friday Harbor. You talk to Navy Whidbey on 118.2 IIRC for transit, and fly just short of Canada. Nice runway but excellent transient pads. They're right next to the pedestrian gate and it's a 4 block walk down into town. Excellent restaurants, nothing too fancy.
It would take 5 hours in a car if you're lucky and the ferries aren't full. You'll need two from here. It takes 40 minutes in a 172, I'm betting 25 in a Bo. Can't wait to try.

OK, just added to my bucket list.

Thanks, George! Great story, well reported.

RE: Your planned upgrades.

If you're going to fly a year with the current panel before embarking on that adventure -- a good idea, IMHO -- you might think about a portable intercom for now. Then you can choose your audio panel/intercom/MB together. A panel-mounted intercom would cost a lot more now and you'd have to work around it next year, costing more in time and money.

Sporty's and Spruce have portable intercoms for 2 or 4 headsets in the $200 range.

Just something to consider.

George, cheers to you, and the lovely Mrs. Sneed for your new Bo.

In the hangar photo, there appear to be two like-painted airplanes, perhaps of a different rank (stripes on the wing). Would that be a his and hers set of matching aircraft?

Keep the reports coming.

Rob

+1! Congratulations!

Nice intro
That picture could be on a mantle. True art. The lovely Mrs Steed will now be graced properly. Nothing worse than hand propping a 172 with the lovely wife smiling on the inside.
Mark

George,
Great story and great intro! Congrats on the new purchase, a great looking 35. Should be lots of fun. You will have lots of fun getting it flying. I'll be moving to SEATAC starting in June and would love to see it in person. Keep in touch and welcome!

Fly Safe.