Guys; Mr. Stauffer is from, easily, the most reputable aftermarket turbine conversion company.

This could be a historic thread.

Why would you want spend all those AMUs and end up with a Bonanza that can back up on the ramp?

I've owned a Tradewinds Bonanza for 6 years. The motor is an Allison 250 B17 F-2.
There are pluses and minuses to all aircraft this one included. My mission profile is typically VFR, under 500nm and in mountainous country. For my mission- it is the perfect airplane.

Much misinformation has been percolated around- mainly by people who really don't know what they are talking about.

I rarely take this aircraft into the flightlevels. In my opinion GA non pressurized aircraft all have rinky-dink O2 systems and anyone who takes one up to 25K (as the ads often brag about are foolish) Therefore- regardless of my turbine bo's capability to fly up to 25K - I never do- unless I find myself in an extremus situation. So to summarize: if you want to fly into the flight levels- get a pressurized plane.

So if the plane is not pressurized is there any reason to get a turbine? In my opinion for my mission- yes. In mountain airports I want to land slow (due to higher TAS/GS) - I want to get off the ground quickly and climb out fast. My turbine allows for all of that. Iam practically a STOL airplane- except I get 200kts every flight. I cruise climb around 140IAS and get 1200fpm fully loaded. Mid weight climbouts are well over 2500fpm @ 120IAS.

I typically fly between 10 and 18K. The best of all worlds is around 14-16K
On most days @ 16K I see the following performance:
Max Cont Pwr: 212-215 KTAS@ 26gph
Cruise 1: 205KTAS @ 23gph
cruise2: 200KTAS @ 22gph
cruise3: 190KTAS @ 20gph
cruise4: 180KTAS @ 18gph

For cooler days add 5 knots TAS to everything and add 1gph
warmer days- subtract 5 knots and subtract 1 gph

The fastest speed I ever saw occured on an exceptionally cool day (-20 ISO I believe) and that was 226KTAS. On a straight ISO day in mid teens I can hit the 220KTAS Tradewind Turbines advertises

I should note that while many owners fly their airplane @ max cont power all the time- I know far too much about turbine aircraft to do this with my own aircraft. I fly 50 deg C below max cont on all missions for engine life and general respect- this almost always yields me 200KTAS on 22gph. Iam happy and so is airplane.

Regarding lower mission profiles- its no big deal. If I have to fly low- I just fly low. My IAS and fuel flows stay exactly the same only my true airspeed decreases. These high efficiency turboprops are not turbojets. Down low- figure you will loose about 10% range.

Regarding range- I've already said most of my mission profiles are inside of 500nm. More than that and iam usually itching to stretch my legs or take a leak. The longest leg I ever flew was about 800nm with a very slight headwind- didn't land with much fuel- so I would call that the aircrafts max effective VFR range. I've had flights longer than 5hrs before and don't think I made it to the fbo before I started leaking- so again- not my thing to do long flights

For me this is the perfect mid teens airplane. As for the rocket engineering design- they've done a great job on the B36 model with a PT6 (and I think it even looks a little more "right") - and the aircraft has greater performance (by about 10%) - but the PT6 is a more high alt eng- not nearly as efficient as the allison in the mid teens and so those guys are driven more into filing IFR into the low-mid 20s - which goes back to my original premise- these planes are not designed for high altitude flight. Until they have a positive pressure military style oxy system they are unsafe flown at those altitudes- even then that's an iffy situation without pressuriztion. But either way- rockets plane flown high against the tradwind flown in mid teens- the tradewind wins handsdown in nm per gal. I have had 11 nm (true not wind assisted) per gallon of jet A with this aircraft. Name me another certified turboprop that gets that kind of performance.

Oh yeah- great ramp prescence- the G-4 guys get ignored and you get a crowd!

Let me know if you would like me to answer any questions!

Jim