I have owned a 1998 A36 for the past 11 years. She is magnificent! A Baron 58 seems to be the easiest transition.
I am looking for a change and would like to hear all opinions on this subject.
After discussing this with my 3 kids and my wife; I know that a twin engine is necessary. My budget is 500k to 600k.
What are my most prudent options?
Thanks Much,
Greg Webb

Greg, with that budget you can get about any piston twin you want. Your remaining considerations would appear to be operating cost and comfort. I'm not qualified to comment on either, but others won't be far behind. Have fun!

Baron or Bust!

I don't think you have to worry about the "Bust" part of that equation. That's enough budget for a lower end C-90, so a 58 should leave you enough to pick out something in the top 10% of the fleet and still have enough left over for a few years worth of operating expenses.

You should be able to pickup a nice G58, but truth be told if I were you I'd forget the G1000 and go for a full retrofit glass cockpit on a B58 and go for the most cherry one you can find. The reason being, the G1000 in my humble opinion is just not up to par with the G500 driven by GTN 750's. The later is just more intuitive and easy to use, not to mention upgradable. If I were you I'd look for a deiced 58 with 550's that's had the works done to it including full glass panel, top of the line paint and interior and low time factory engines or prestige overhauls like Victor Black or Powermasters engines with GAMI's. You should be able to find a good one, have fun looking!

Do what Adam says.... you're in the range of what we spent on our B58. I can tell you now, that you will not be disappointed.

Adam, This is Great advice. Thank You. I wonder if approach plates are included with the GTN750. Traffic and weather would be nice too.

I have flown my Bonanza more than 700 hours and I have not gotten lost yet so whatever package is in the newer aircraft will be better than what I am currently using.

It seems that the G58's are over the budget so far.

Thanks Again,
Greg

The options below are some must haves, and some nice to haves....you decide.

The ultimate 58 would start with the following:

550s

Full Deice (FIKI is not for me, but you might not mind the hot plate) Boots, Hot Props, and a spray bar are great.

200 Gallons

Manual Cowl Flaps

Air Conditioning

KFC-200 with Yaw Damper

Sight Gauges for fuel (in the wing)

Aluminum Elevators

Prop Sync

Gamis

Fine Wire Tempest Plugs

BDS Baffles

Club Seating

Clear Nose Baggage with Heater under floor

Ice Light

Radar

This bird would check all the boxes for me as a buyer and is worthy of extensive upgrades.

Happy hunting!

I am in the same boat and go back and forth between the g58 and a full Garmin or Aspen-Garmin retrofit. I have a G1000 Turbo 182 now and am pretty familiar with the system. I would also agree that the G500 + GTN is a better overall system than the G1000, with major, almost insurmountable caveat that the autopilot options for Barons are GFC700 and everything else a very distant second place. That in my mind is the major pro of the G1000 over an older one. The cons are cost, single AHAR/ADC, lots and lots of knob spinning relative to GTN and reduced functionality depending on how you look at it (engine monitoring, user-defined holds, backup instrumentation). Still, the autopilot integration and perfect flying are really, really nice.

What about your current Bonanza does not meet your needs?

What do you want the new plane to do? Apart from two engines are there other non-functional requirements (newer than X, etc)

I agree. If I were in the market now it would be for a pre G1000 plane. G1000 is 10 years old now and being replaced. There aren't enough G58's out there that there will be an STC sometime in the future to upgrade. Where as a B58 will always have STC's. The only benefit to the G1000 anymore is the GFC700. But I'm sure a great aftermarket AP will come along.

I'd look for a low hour 2005 or so B58.

I have to say that if I (still) had three kids, a wife and $600K, I would be looking for the best Cessna 421C I could find. The transition for the pilot is fun, the plane is incredibly comfortable for passengers, and I'd put the difference between $600K and a great 421 into the fuel budget, and go just about wherever and whenever I want.

Jason, you think? I have heard for years that the DFC90 is going to get a Baron STC, but ahem, radio silence for over a year now. When I talked to the Garmin folks at NBAA showing off their G600/GTN options they looked at me with blank stares when I mentioned engine monitors and GFC retrofits. I got the impression that I was the first person on earth that asked them why they don't have a retrofit autopilot/FCS option.

I appreciate the limited market for birds that are out of production where actual greenfield engineering would need to be done, but for the dozens (maybe hundreds now) of airframes where there is a G1000/GFC700 available from the factory, how hard could it be?

Of course, there is always that argument that no one would ever again buy a new airplane again...

One could put this into a Baron, along with a new radar, new interior and new paint and still be way under what a lightly-used G58 would cost. You might even be ahead on the depreciation curve too

In that case, the problem is "piston twin". Nobody builds them anymore. They're just not on any avionics manufacturers radar unfortunately. I guess they're all busy working on the "new new".

How different we all are. It's great that that's the case - I salute it. It's what makes this world interesting.

If I had that kind of money to spend I would not walk, I would run away from any piston plane ever made. When you finally put a price on becoming mentally unstable by having to deal with:

Carb ice
LOP/ROP
Shock cooling
Bootstrapping
MP split/drift
EGT spread
CHT spread
Detonation
Pre-ignition
Overhauling turbos
Wastegates
Spark plugs
Valves
Camshafts
Morning sickness
Vapor lock
Rich cut
Mixtures
Vibrations
Leaning
Cracked cylinders

…then it's time to look at turbines.

I'm very glad that there are people out there who will buy a brand new Baron for $1 million, because I want Beechcraft to do well and survive. But I'm also incredulous they sell a single one when that will get you a very nice KA, Commander 1000 Jetprop or MU-2 Marquise kitted out to the hilt, without any of the above headaches.

I just did the math on my Aerostar for oil changes the other day. I change oil every 25hrs. I don't do it myself, and it takes my mechanics a few hours and costs me about $3-400 each time. That's almost $29K over the TBO of the engine in just oil change costs! That's basically the cost of a hot section inspection. I haven't even factored in the cracked cylinders, or the ubiquitous turbo overhauls, mag overhauls, or the $100/pop spark plugs yet that will happen on top of this on the way to TBO.