"john smith" wrote in message
...
Conquest
Cheyenne
Twin Commander

A friend bought a Cheyenne three years ago. He said it had the best
safety record

Did he cite some information, or is that hearsay?

and least operating costs as the reasons for its purchase.

By the number's I've seen, that's true _per hour_, but not _per mile_.
A couple things that bother me about the Cheyenne are that I'm not sure
about Piper's long term viability (Do they even support the Cheyenne
anymore?), 2nd is that is uses P&W PT-6 engines that are fuel hogs.

If not for the P&W's, I'd go for a King Air C90B; there's a lot on the
market, they're fairly new (mid 1990's models) and comfortable, and there's
some damn good prices on the ones for sale.

The Conquest and Twin Commander use the Garrett (now Honeywell) TPE331 and
with a -10 conversion, has a 5000 hr TBO and very low fuel flow (less than
85 GPH for both engines). I undestand that Cessna no long supports the
Conquest and there are issues with the airframe.

I've also considered one of the single engine turboprops, but they all
fairly new nad thus still fairly expensive to buy used (well over $2
million).

The Twin Commnader has some very impressive performance and cost numbers,
but they're ugly, the cabin is pretty narrow, and the cockpit is hard to get
into if you're not limber and have a fat ass. The 695 series have had only
one fatal accident (guy flew directly into a major TS cell) which is
impressive consider they're almost exclusively "owner flown", and they land
at less than 90 kts.

His previous aircraft was a C310.

Did he say what else he looked at?


--
Matt
---------------------
Matthew W. Barrow
Site-Fill Homes, LLC.
Montrose, CO (MTJ)