I assume that when you say "speed" you are talking about minimium trip time.
Obviously range is a big part of this, maybe bigger than actual TAS.

Right, overall trip time.

Also, are you talking about flying in virtually all weather or just
most of the time?

Most of the time.


Are your trips evenly distributed thoughout the seasons?

Pretty much. December is slow, November a bit slow. The other months are
about equal.


How many trips will involve crossing the Sierra or Rockies?

Sierra, every two months, Rockies, twice a year.

At night?

Virtually never. Unless it is a short trip, I won't fly after a full day
of work. Generally I have an entire day for travel, a one day
requirement to be somewhere and the next entire day to travel home.


What is the operating budget? It is going to cost at least $50K/yr to
operate an airplane that will make 75+% of the trips. If your trips are
mostly to SoCal from Tuscon, just buy a high performance turbocharged
single and you will be able to complete most of your trips at low cost.

Figure six trips to SoCal, another four to Las Vegas. A handful to NM,
TX, CO per year. The TC single is highest on my list right now - the
question is *which* TC single ?

If a lot of trips are to somewhere in the PNW or the Plains (aka: tornado
alley) then you are going to need deice and radar.

There's my challenge. I average eight trips per year to Portland, OR. I
may decide to still fly those commercially, depending on the airplane I
end up with. East coast stuff will remain commercial. I know I can't
eliminate commercial travel entirely, I just want to reduce it as much
as practical.

Can you just fly to Pheonix and then fly direct on SW or UAL?

I can drive to PHX. From my house, TUS is about 40 minutes and PHX is
about a 90 minute drive. By the time I drive to the airport, preflight,
pull the airplane out and secure the hangar and fly to PHX, it is a wash
to drive with respect to time. I really want to avoid the whole TSA
thing as much as possible. That random "strip search" a couple of weeks
ago was the final straw.

I had a similiar situation to yours. I lived in Minden NV, flew a Turbo
Lance and I had about 85% success in being able to fly myself to
destinations mostly in CA, arriving on time and not getting stranded on the
California side of the mountains when it was time to return. To go from 85%
to 99%, the minimium airplane had to have radar, pressurization, deice and
(two) turbine engines.

My furthest trip would be a bit shy of 1000 NM. If I can do that
non-stop with reasonable speed, that's about 6 hours. I typically depart
at 7 am so that would get me there around 1 pm. If I have weather
issues, as long as I can get within a 4-6 hour drive, that will still be
a success.

Think long and hard about what you want to accomplish and what you are
willing to do and pay for it. There is no airplane that will make your
trips 99% of the time even at four times your budget but almost any airplane
will make your trips most of the time.
What are the deficiencies of your current airplane (the Mooney) for making
your trips?

Overall time, primarily. Altitude secondarily. My 'C' model Mooney may
require two fuel stops (depending on wind) and a total time for a 1000
NM trip of close to 10 hours. If I can pick up 30 kts of TAS and make it
a one fuel stop trip, that shortens my overall time to maybe seven
hours. Non-stop might be six hours. Saving 40% on time would make me
want to do it. I don't have a strong desire to spend 10 hours getting
somewhere in one day in a GA airplane. Intermediate trips would all be
non-stop versus some of them one stop in my current Mooney.
---
Ken Reed
http://www.dentalzzz.com