As many of you know I've been looking for a replacement for my Cirrus for a couple of years. When I purchased it I planned to sell it in the fall of 2016 and move to something which burns kerosene. My problem was I just couldn't decide for a long time what I wanted to fly next.

I realized a couple of months ago that if I was going to sell the Cirrus this fall I needed to get moving so I called my friend, and aircraft broker extraordinaire, Neal Schwartz. Neither he nor I had any clue he would sell it for what I wanted in less than 12 hours. Most deals don't go together that fast but with Neal they do go together smoothly and they get closed. He makes it easy.

Now I had to decide.

I decided that a later model TBM would give me the range, speed and payload I needed. Neal and I've talked about TBM's for a couple of years and I asked him if he would help me buy one. He agreed and he went to work. We made offers on several planes along the way but still managed to buy and close on one in under 4 weeks. It would have happened more quickly but the shop that did the last inspection did the wrong one and that took a week to correct. It is simply amazing to see a guy with a full time job as an airline pilot handle all the intricacies of buying a plane like this, while representing other clients at the same time, be unflappable, available night and day and make a deal happen when it could easily have fallen apart a half dozen times. Neal is simply: The Best.

We closed on the 30th and the next day I was off to Simcom in Orlando for six days of sim school. I really enjoyed Simcom except that due to the hurricane I needed to finish two days early which meant 6 hours in the sim the last day! I don't recommend that...Next up is in airplane training for several days and then some mentor flying beginning in about a week.

Here's the plane (photos courtesy of the broker Express Jets and Dan Boone who was also very helpful in getting a deal done).

For a legacy 850 the plane is very well equipped. The former owner took great care of it and added a lot of nice new equipment including: dual Garmin G600's, dual GTN 750's, L3 Backup, GSR56 Satellite phone system, GDL 88 ADSB and GTX 33ES remote transponders, 5 blade Hartzell prop, gear door mod and a new paint job in April of this year. With just under 1100 hours TTAF I'm looking forward to flying it lot in the next few years.

I'm happy to be finished with my search and really pleased with the result. I can't wait to begin flying the plane. Before I do though I do want to thank a number of BT'ers, in addition to Neal, that provided invaluable knowledge, advice and help to me as I looked including: Andy, Don, Alex, Michael, Mike, John, Marc, Chuck, Adam, Bruce, Chip, James, Mark, Tim, Dave, Stan, Max, Jason, Steve, Brad, Jeff, Paul and Jean-michel. You guys were a big help and BT has been, once again, invaluable. Thanks!

Nice!

Any turbine experience before this? If not, how is the transition so far?

Congrats Tony, looks awesome!

Congratulations. Who did the avionics upgrade? Very nice

Greg

Tony

You done good there.....I love it!!!!

5 blade prop to boot........bad ass!!!

and don't let Neal take any credit

Congratulations.

Muncie Aviation did the panel. It's a really nice installation except for one small detail. The Garmin RVSM STC requires one of the original digital transponders and they were both removed during the upgrades. So, to get RVSM I'm going to have to buy one and put it back in.

Brian,

I'm a complete Noob. All I have done so far is 12 hours in the sim. I have some traveling I have to do which is delaying the start of my in aircraft training for another week unfortunately.

Congratulations Tony! She looks like a total peach!

Very nice! Congratulations.

Brian,

I'm a complete Noob. All I have done so far is 12 hours in the sim. I have some traveling I have to do which is delaying the start of my in aircraft training for another week unfortunately.

And a very nice new ride it is! Wow. Love it.

Penman is right, that 5 blade is bad ass.

Man that is nice. You are going to love that turbine, much less workload than a piston just pay attention at start up. You have a personal airliner now congrats!

Nice ride Tony, but, don't think that's going to fit in my hangar.

Tony, that’s gorgeous. And you’re right...Neal is the best.



Well done, Sir.