To Glass or Not To Glass...

The Baron is a very nice airplane and it is very easy to fly
at 85-90 knots. But any twin requires that you practice a
lot or the second engine will quickly take you to the scene
of the accident. The 310 is developing a lot of airframe
problems.

The glass cockpit is nice, but the real selling point is
that it is cheaper for the manufacturer to buy and install.
You can buy a nice used airplane and upgrade to modern panel
mounted GPS and displays for less money than buying a new
G1000 airplane.

You may need a 5-6 seat airplane to be able to carry 4 and
some baggage with enough fuel to fly x-c. Over-water. you
will need a raft and floatation gear whether you are in a
single or twin. If you have the money, a Cessna 208 Caravan
with a PT6 engine is a nice airplane with good sight-seeing
layout.


wrote in message
...
| I'm starting the process of shopping for an airplane.
| I'm thinking of buying one in 2 to 3 months.
|
| I want a cross country plane that can carry 2 people
| and baggage/camping gear, and sometimes 4 people with
light baggage.
|
| As a computer geek I'm very enamoured with the new glass
cockpits,
| and I'm in the process of getting checkout in a new G1000
182.
|
| I'm currently thinking about a 1 or 2 year old G1000 182
or G1000 DA40.
|
| Any comments from people that have lived with the new
glass for awhile?
| I've been doing a lot of resarch on the web and keep
seeing comments
| about reliability, software glitches etc....
| See:http://www.da40g1000.com/
|
| For the price of flying new Glass, one could buy an older
airframe, add
| new engine, prop, avionics, interior and paint and have
$100K left over.
|
| I'm also fighting the twin/single dilema, I'm not sure I
fly enough
| (50 to 100hrs a year) to be really current in a twin, but
| One of my standard flights is to go up the coast from San
Diego
| CRQ-AVX-SBA avoiding LA class B and traffic.
|
| This is 100 miles over water and doing this in a single
allways makes me feel queasy.
|
| As a result I've also thought about getting a older
barron, or 310 and
| putting in new engines, props and avionics, still probably
cheaper than a
| new "Glass" bird. The only downside is that sightseeing
low and slow along the
| coast is not as much fun at 150K as it is at 75K
| I'm only a little conflicted on requirements, If I had
infinite $ I'd own two
| planes.... a breezy and a light jet ;-
|
|
| Any thoughts from the peanut gallery....
|
| Paul
|
|
|
|

I'd suggest a single for your first airplane. As for which year, it is
up to your budget. Aircraft are like cars in that the newer ones
depreciate more, so you will eat it when you sell if you buy new(er).
Still, safetywise, newer is better. Old stuff is OLD. If you like the
182 and glass cockpit, get one of those. Not a bad choice. Cessna 182
will do your mission. You'll just have to live with over the water
single issues, but Catalina can be flown so you can glide to land, if
you climb high enough. Small twins are expensive, and statistically
more dangerous than singles. If budget is at all a consideration, stick
with a single. Buy the newest you can afford.

Certainly buy all the goodies you can afford. Adding
avionics/autopilots/etc to an existing plane is enormously expensive
and you never get the money back. Best bet is to always buy a plane
that has the stuff you want.

-Robert

Doug wrote:
Buy the newest you can afford.