Steve W

Thanks, that's a good point, I sometimes forget that turbos can be a concern with the need for Oxygen and the additional care/engine management/planning needed. All my Turbo time so far is Cessna T182, T206 and now a couple hours in an SR-22 turbo which all are significantly newer systems with built-in turbo management and nice engine monitors and all that data.

So, I'm finally getting near an actual mission profile. It's pretty much Western US, coastal Oregon down to Los Angeles initially and with trips to Portland when I need to take the bus further than that. I'm leaning towards a 231... I'd still love a Known Ice 252 or something, but that's going to be out of budget for a while. Right now my problem is that I don't dare start really looking until I have a date when I'll be out of California to avoid them trying to charge me sales/use tax. It's a little odd, but I'm seeing well equipped(well, in my opinion) 231s with less than mid time engines for at or under 110k. So I have to start wondering what's wrong with them, higher fuel burn, higher maintenance when needed but still look to be a pretty good deal. All American has one, and there are a few others.

Here's a shootout I did late last year. Kindle, Nexus 7, either the Tab pro or the Tab S 8.x, iPad Mini 2, and Tab S 10.5 http://www.wormley.com/gallery3/index.php/Misc/Screen-Brightness-20141102/ I haven't been keeping my site up so I have no idea if my custom stuff will work on the newest Kindles, but anyone who has one could try that or the PDF versions, my website is just chartbundle.com

Yes, it would be RAM-HOL-AP14RU. The U just means it comes in a plastic bag.

Honestly I'm fairly happy with the Pebble. My main face is local and Zulu times. Buzzes when I get a message. Has an app called 'MultiTimer' which does exactly what it says, I can set multiple timers both count up and down so I have a 30 minute check fuel/tanks reminder and another one for approaches/holds. Battery life in the multiple days.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm still working on nailing down a 'mission profile'. I'm currently in San Diego. But assuming I change jobs as expected by the end of the year my goal will be move to Western OR or WA for about 50% travel and 50% work from home. So, sometimes I'll be flying(or driving) to a big airport for an airline flight and other times I'll be flying myself to Western US locations time and weather permiting. And still other times I'll be shoving a portable office in the plane to go camp and work somewhere. I don't expect a Turbo would improve my dispatch rates or significantly impact the trip lengths I plan to fly in the short term so I'm thinking I'll leave that out for now.

So, I'm finally tired of rentals and all that entails and am looking for a new job where I might have to travel, and as such may be able to fly myself sometimes. So, as part of that I've been toying with the idea of a Mooney. I have a few hours in the M20J so I'm ok with the fit. Right now I don't have a good mission profile, most stuff I currently do is in a Rental 182RG so I figure a better fuel burn and not buying into the Cessna gear system puts me in Mooney land. I'm looking at under $90k US, under mid-time engine with a 2 axis autopilot and a WAAS GPS. The thing I keep seeing is the M20Ks at roughly the same prices, a little more engine time and a little less well equipped usually, and while I'd love a turbo, I don't think that's a good first purchase. I'm thinking M20J now, and if it works well and I manage to use it for work I can move up to something with a turbo and known ice later(Western US). And if it doesn't work well, they seem to hold their value decently. Other suggestions? Ideas? Stuff on the market?

If you have a 406 then it has to have both frequencies in the US. 47CFR87.199 for ELT, 47CFR95.1402 for PLB and 47CFR80.1061 for EPIRB these are actually FCC requirements. I'm not presently aware of any good on-foot equipment for homing on 406. And honestly, even homing the 406 from the air is a bit of a pain in the neck since you always need specialized gear, whereas the 121.5 signal can be tracked by anyone with an airplane com receiver.

You will still be able to tell a 406MHz is transmitting by listening on 121.5MHz with your aircraft radio, it has a much shorter range but produces the same sweep tone for identification and close-in location(most hand-held equipment for SAR still can only receive the 121.5 Signal).

So, this looks like a reasonable place to put a question about the 231 engine. What is an overhaul actually going to run. I'm starting to evaluate my options getting into ownership and am trying to get an idea of what I'd actually have to do as far as reserves go.