Bob,

As a number of the airstrips you are dealing with may not be paved,
you will probably want to use a high wing airplane to reduce the
chance of damage to the wing from stones and debris during takeoff and
landing.

That aside, it will be cheaper for you to travel by airline than by
general aviation airplane, so you will probably not save your clients
any money, unless the value of your time is factored in and you can
somehow do it faster in a light single.

For long legged single engine airplanes look at a late model Cessna
210 or Cessna 182RG, either turbocharged or normally aspirated. The
182RG series has a great deal of range at about 150 knots, the
turbocharged version is faster and gives you more flexibility with
altitude, wind and weather, which may be a factor in your area. The
210 cruises at about 170 knots, with the turbo version getting over
200 at high altitude.

The range charts in the POHs for the various airplanes will give you
some guidance of range versus power setting. You can substantially
increase range at lower power settings, although the speed reduction
is sometimes so great that it can be faster to stop for fuel.

Best of luck in the search,
Rick

(Bob) wrote in message . com...
Hello,

I've been reading news on flying for quite a while and these seems to
be the most well-informed groups (the googles)on the net. I would
therefore like to have your personnal opinion on a question. I live
in Northern Quebec (Yes, I'm french speaking so forgive the spelling
mistakes) and practice as a lawyer in the Nordic region of Quebec with
native people (no road access), we always travel by plane (Gruman G-1,
dash-8 or twin otter) and, as everyone, I am limited to the schedule
of these companies. I would like to fly my own plane to these
community; I would be able to charge less to my client for travelling,
I would be able to use these portion of flying as tax deductible (and
parts of the plane expense) and that would give me the possibility of
mixing my career with flying. My town airport as a 10000 feet (yes
almost two miles, it used to be military) airstrip and we are located
at 1016 feet ASL. The kind of places I would like to go are
Great-Whale (500 statute miles), Chisasibi (300 statute miles),
Kuujuaq(800 statute miles) and Puvirnituq (850 statute miles ), of
course I will be able to fuel between these objectives. My question
finally!

-From your personnal opinion what is the best small single-engine
plane for this kind of use?

-The number of seats is irrelevant, I don't intent to carry
passengers;
-the payload is irrelevant( except for fuel), I travel light;
-the speed is not a major item;
-I don't like taildagger, the crosswind can be strong up there;
-range is the major item, avgas or mogas is harder to get in the small
airport the northern community (You often have to buy the whole 45
gallons drum)so refuelling is very time-consuming;
-Price range would be less than 55,000 canadian $ (about 40,000 us$)

If you need more precision do not hesitate to contact me

Thank you very much for your collaboration,

Yours Truly

Bob

Province of Quebec, Canada