Nit picking for accuracy. Not G1000. They are G600 + GTN750. I’m a huge fan of the system and it’s modularity.

Oops, yep, I knew that.

Just one more week they say...I'm pretty excited.

NICE!!!!!

Matt - where is yours being done?

Mines going on 5mon in the shop.....

Saw that a few minutes ago driving in.

The airplane paint process is amazing. That thing is going to be so sweet when they are done.

Sureflight in Coatesville PA. Their owners post on BT every so often.

They estimated 22 business days which was shocking to me. They were pretty confident. I think actual will be 25 days as there was more sanding required than they anticipated. Very much impressed.

Just got back from Boston via Knoxville this afternoon. There was a major weather system running north to south across the country with howling winds. I decided to cruise at FL280 which is the lowest I think I've done a cross country trip at in order to reduce wind as much as possible. I did climb to Fl360 to top the weather in Arkansas rather than deviate - which is awesome to be able to do. Otherwise I flew low.

That resulted in pretty fast TAS ranging from 375 when heavy and props pulled back to 1800 rpm to the fastest cruise speed I've experienced so far - 386 KTAS! That also results in a pretty impressive fuel burn- not in a good way - but even with 42 knots of wind on the nose we were crossing the ground at 344 knots. That was awesome. In the TBM I'd have been at 300-305 knots true and close to 250 knots over the ground. The difference is a game changer on a long trip!

I knew I was going to overhaul my landing gear when I bought my plane. When I evaluated planes I "normalized" costs with estimated hourly and annual costs of every major inspection, engine event and overhaul. I used similar estimates on other items like paint and interior all in an effort to try to determine the value of individual planes compared to their asking prices. Yes, I'm a tad anal.

I know that gear overhauls aren't required for Part 91 ops. But, I am one who doesn't believe maintenance deferred ever gets cheaper and it comes out when you sell.

Anyway, my gear was "due" at the end of March but I didn't actually start the overhaul process until then. The reason was I didn't want the plane to be AOG for a long time. The solution to that was to purchase a set of "as removed" gear and send it off for overhaul so I could keep flying on the old gear. I would then do a swap and sell my old gear. I wasn't able to find a set of as removed at an acceptable price until early in the year. Dean McKenzie at ICJ came through for me though and we sent the gear off on March 6th. I got it installed and picked it up on October 11th. To be fair, ICJ had it back in their shop ready to go at the end of August but I wanted to wait until I did the 6 and 12 month inspections to reduce downtime. Still, it took six months to get the gear overhauled. ICJ only took a week for the swap. One good thing, I guess, about doing it this way is you spread the pain. I bought the gear. Then you have to pay for the overhaul up front. Then the steering actuator people take that apart and give you a price and you pay that. Then ICJ bills their labor - which is the cheapest part - at the end.

I had one little glitch when I got a red unsafe light on one of the main gear legs after take off. A couple more hours in the shop and it's perfect.

Good for another 12 years!

My as removed gear had a lot fewer cycles than the gear I bought so I might actually come out ahead when someone buys for me. We'll see. ICJ will hang on to it and make arrangements with the next guy. All in it will have been at the lower end of the horror stories you hear.

The guys at ICJ are great to work with and super helpful.

Now for the props...

Tony,

I live near Knoxville and heard an “interesting” sounding plane flying over. I immediately checked traffic on FF and saw it was an Avanti. Must have been you! Small world.

Jim

If it was around midday or a bit earlier it was me!

Tony - stop pulling your props back. The plane is less efficient! Note all the long range cruise charts the specific range at 1800 rpm vs 2000 rpm is .80 vs .84.

I don't think it changes the pilot seat noise, just the pitch.

Flying low in the Avanti is fun, it really hauls the mail down there and the climb up is extremely quick.

Is synthetic vision available on the Proline pre-evo? Also how big is the transition to FMS and how does it compare in terms of capability and ease of use to something like a TXi with EIS and GFC AP?

These are amazing planes. Just needs Garmin up front!

Tony, would you mind sharing the O/H cost for the overhaul part?

Matt, would you mind sharing the paint cost?

This thread is useless without numbers.