Long time guys! I tried the comeback a couple years back and a weird thing happened. Apparently my wife decided to play dirty and added a family member to stall me. Well, now my daughter has my parents and in laws screaming about more visits, and my locale has drastically (for us) changed as we now live in Virginia. So enough with catching up; plenty of time for that. Let’s talk shop.

I’m in need of an airplane that can get me from Chesterfield VA KFCI to Austin Exec KEDC and lots of places in between. Budget is ~$350k, timeline to buy is Apr or after. I’m looking for all the opinions and thoughts, as I’m pretty rusty with only a hand full of hours since the sundowner seven years ago. I’ll leave it general for now and we can narrow down together as I think through any suggestions or ideas. Thanks guys and great to be back!

How many people, how much weight? Weather capability?

Single v. twin preference?

With that budget should be no problem finding options

Never more than four. Typical profile will be 2 adults one child, a golf bag and luggage. I can w&b to make anything work. Unless I’m really screaming that flight to Austin is going to have a stop anyway. I’m IFR rated and don’t mind IMC. Zero time in a twin left seat, couple hours in a 310 right seat. Enjoyed it, not opposed. Just don’t want to get too far over my skis.

First thing that popped into my mind:

A36 Bonanza or Piper Saratoga as both have easy entry cabin for the passengers and the Saratoga has a forward cargo area right behind the engine to help with W&B issues.

I've flown both and I prefer the A36 but that's just me. With the kiddo you'll want to limit legs to about 3 hours so range shouldn't be an issue.

My $.02

Went into an A36 last year, very happy, family of 4, but end up carrying more quite often.

Cost of operation is hard to beat for what it can do.

Enjoy the search,

Russell

Larkin,

With that budget and mission length. I would be looking for TSIO-550 power Malibu it has the legs to do that trip the speed and most all its pressurized.... I think that would give you the best bang for your buck plus you get deicing boots,which in your area would be an excellent option..

You don't mention your wife's joy factor of flying? Realistically, that trip is going to be a looong one in anything piston. Can you rent something to see if she is going to be on board with it? Another scenario is they fly commercial and you carry all the bags and stuff. Get a V35 or F33 with tips tanks and roll.

On the other hand, my hangarmate has a pre 84? Malibu and he rolls with that thing and his family. Don't be fooled though, they are expensive to operate. You can't burn all of your money up on the purchase price or you will not be happy.

We’ve made the trip three times, albeit minus the baby, twice in a 182 and once in the 310. My wife loves flying as much as I do, and the baby has shown no issues in two cross country commercial flights. None of these flights would be on hard have to make timeframes, as I’d fly commercial for all of us in that situation. I’m giving the longest “planned” flight, with as mentioned plenty of shorter destinations between.

As for the finances, I’m happy to save a dollar. I do want upgraded avionics, and my experience and words of advice from family pilots so far have been to buy the plane as close to what I want initially as possible. The price I gave has so far in my searches yielded glass or close to it, mid time, turn key ready. What I’ve seen so far has left a pretty wide gulf between that and the next tier. With a few months dedicated to looking and research, I’m happy to explore all options initially and open to pro’s and con’s. As an example, the Malibu seems like a step further than I feel I’m ready to take on, but for those that can speak to it feel free to continue to open my eyes. Thanks!

If you want to spend $175 to $225k, lots of good older upgraded A36’s to choose from. If you want to spend $300 to $375k, lots of Malibu’s in that price range. Pressurization and deice are great to have, and basically all pressurized planes are also air conditioned. The Malibu will cost more to maintain.

Welcome back Larkin!

Time for some new videos.

This was her this morning

First step taken today as I scheduled with the local flight school at kfci to do an initial ground and flight session to start breaking down the cobwebs and establishing a plan for getting back in the flow. They fly a cirrus so ill get a few more hours in that airframe to finalize the decision to move away from it as an option. I’m most excited that they have a sim capable of various avionics set ups in bo and baron layouts to get myself familiar with some of the new systems and procedures I’ll be looking for. It’s an fm100 if anybody has any experience to share on that particular sim. Enjoying reading the threads and getting my thoughts more in order as you each share. Thanks again guys!

Welcome back! Congratulations on the new crewmember!

Given your mission, what about a really nice tricked out F33A (not mine.. but kinda like that)???

Drew,

I’m trying to keep an open mind. The list of things that’ll be new to me is a bit daunting, so I honestly don’t know the capabilities and more important my limitations of each. Quick rundown I’ve got ~500 hrs all in fixed gear non high performance. The sundowner had a 430 and a wing leveler, so I knew how to load approaches and flew all those hrs predominantly by hand, but that leaves a lot of learning to be done. Areas of current desire to get up to speed on are autopilots and coupling approaches. I’ve got three whole hours with a stec 55 and loved the abilities it had. As for TN, TC, oxygen etc all would be crawled with capable right seat instruction. So with all that said, the longest legs I see flying are three-four hour hops and I’d like whatever platform I decide on to be capable of making it from Richmond to Austin with one stop comfortably and safely. That leaves a wide envelope of options.

Get a turbo-normalized A36 with air conditioning and built in O2.