25 GPH in the 58 Baron is roughly 180 knots - maybe 185 if you are light. 200 knots will cost you 30-32 GPH and you won't make that speed above 12k.

I will side with Jason here and say you are safer (and more comfortable) in a single engine Turbo Prop than a twin piston unpressurized. Go fly both taking your wife with you and then decide. I might add - fly one on an IMC day with clouds to 20k ft and tell which one you want.

Adam S.

Spot on regarding the idea of a piston twin, or piston anything for that matter. What is the real ongoing maintenance for a PT6 stored on the coast? Compressor washes after every flight? All the Meridian logs I ever see seem to involve 100 hour corrosion inhibitor applications on the inlet case. Also lots of references to borescope this or that...

What about letting them sit for 2-3 weeks (hangared)?

Spend $350 AMU and get a top of the market NA 58 and fly on. That airplane will do anything you want to do and do it in style. See Jesse J's post for must-haves.

There is no better place to be than flying a Baron, that's paid for, that you don't care about the operating costs. Fill it up wherever, hangar it at the destination, if it ain't working fix it, fly it by yourself, doesn't matter. That is about as good as it gets.

26gph is about 180-185kts, fastest i could go keeping my cylinders cool with 520s.

Eclipse is 50gph burning $1 a gallon cheaper fuel doing 350kts above the weather.

I vote a $250-300k nice baron OR a 500-1 million turbine.

A 600k baron makes me wonder if that makes any sense.

Tom, I agree.
I thought about adding a Colemill turbo to my Bonanza and cruise along at 190kts burning only 16gph.
Truth be told, with a twin engine my wife just might fly with me.
I have over 700hrs in my Bonanza and my wife has only flown a few times. We have a 2nd home in Maine where I built Hangars at the local airport so I could house my airplanes. Every weekend my wife drives while I fly. I arrive at least 4 hours ahead of her.

On a recent trip from Boston to New York my wife was on board. I filed an IFR flight plan and we flew over water into solid IMC at 8,000 feet. As I queried the controller for clearance for lower he could hear my wife screaming. He immediately cleared me to 4k. It was pretty funny.

Overblown. The compressor wash is way oversold. It's a good way to get your money in their pocket. You can build a wash rig for a couple hundred bucks and rinse things out with about 30 minutes of time a few times per year if it makes you feel better. Borescope inspections are also fairly easy. If you do them when you have the nozzles out for cleaning anyway, it only adds an hour or so to the nozzle cleaning bill. Sitting is fine. A PT-6A will sit happily in a hangar even better than a Continental. The biggest danger will be trying to start with a weak battery. Don't ever do that.

The Meridian thing is particular to that airframe. For some reason they put a different inlet on those engines and it has turned out to be a bust. Maybe they were trying to save Piper a few pounds by going to magnesium from aluminum but it has proven to be very costly to owners. Oddly enough, the nose case on the PT6A is magnesium and there are some corrosion problems but not nearly the scale of the Piper inlet mess.

If you want a turbine PA46, jetprop is the way to go over a Meridian. No compressor washes, better performance, easier maintenance .. the list goes on.

Is she a pilot?

No she is not a pilot

What's her deal with 2 engines then?

I agree; however, with full fuel you can have a 75 lb pilot and nothing else in the plane. So, unless you weigh 75 lbs you are going nowhere legally with full fuel.

Same old story you hear over and over about twins being safer. She is very nervous flying in a single engine airplane.
On takeoff if I lose the engine in the Bonanza I would have to put her down, with a Baron I would just fly away.
The Baron climbs faster, further and higher and can carry more weight. That is what I like most about this thought of a change.

Same old story you hear over and over about twins being safer. She is very nervous flying in a single engine airplane.
On takeoff if I lose the engine in the Bonanza I would have to put her down, with a Baron I would just fly away.
The Baron climbs faster, further and higher and can carry more weight. That is what I like most about this thought of a change.

You may want to check the useful load of a newer Baron. Many of them are around the 1200-1300 lb range which gives you no more payload than a Bonanza and maybe less. Also, at gross, you will not just "fly away." They do climb ok with an engine out, but a B55 IO-550 will a out climb a G58 by 50% on one engine.

My wife was the same way, so I bought a Baron, then a Duke, then a King Air. The fear did not go away. So, instead of finding an airplane for her, I bought one for me. I now go 30% faster on 50% less fuel and enjoy it better. In fact, she even rides in the new plane. Buy what YOU want.

This...http://www.controller.com/listingsdetail/aircraft-for-sale/BEECHCRAFT-58P-BARON/1979-BEECHCRAFT-58P-BARON/1325743.htm