flybipe

Thanks for the rapid and helpful comments! Currently I'm flying a Pitts S-2B, and I've had a series of single seat Pitts before that, but it's time to add a traveling airplane to the hangar. A change in roles at work has me traveling to Seattle almost every week and since a portion of my week is already used to commute by aircraft, I might as well take advantage of the new job to do it in my own airplane instead of by airline. I used to fly Part 135 Charter in 300/400 series Twin Cessnas and I flew an Aerostar for a company for a couple of years too. I also used to broker aircraft for the local flight school owner and two of my most memorable delivery flights were in a 2000 Ovation and a 2001 Bravo, both to the East Coast from Oregon. (The Ovation - N1012P - went on to twice circumnavigate the globe with new owners.) I demonstrated each of them for a couple of months before selling them and really enjoyed their handling. I did however, get into one of the worst icing encounters of my life in the Ovation (non-TKS) over Idaho and had to make an iced up landing at Twin Falls in January with no forward visibility. Hence my desire to have the FIKI. I admire the efficiency of the IO-550's, but I've only ever owned Lycomings, and I've gotten to know them inside and out pretty well. I would of course love to have as much useful load as possible, but realistically, if the flight is more than an hour, my wife and daughter are taking the airlines. My son does like to fly with me, and he's done Oshkosh with me for the last 6 years in a borrowed Cessna, so I'm envisioning any flight over an hour is likely only going to have 1-2 people on board. I imagine the flight to/from Seattle could easily be done with good predictability in a FIKI Ovation since the entire flight is in the valley between the Coastal and Cascade mountain ranges. But the MEA's are often 14,000+ going east or south/southeast and a that's where I'm thinking the turbo would be nice. Either way I go, some of these early comments confirm my thoughts that I'd probably be happier with a non-G1000 panel if I can find a nice pre-GX airframe, which would mean Bravo or Ovation...or certainly if I went with an Acclaim, hold out for one with WAAS and a GFC700. Airplane shopping is fun!

I'm a new member and 1st time poster. I've been an aircraft owner for 15 years and am considering my first Mooney. I live in Portland, OR and am looking for something that I can use to reliably travel to/from Seattle weekly for work by myself (138 NM), take my wife and two teenage kids to breakfast or lunch in places like Sunriver (100 NM) and the San Juans (150 NM), take approximately one trip a month to southern CA for work (750 NM), and of course fly annually to Oshkosh, along with a few other weekend trips along the way to places like the Reno and Truckee (375 NM). (Kids are also getting close to college age and some weekend trips may be forthcoming up/down the west coast as well.) I've got a budget of around $350K and am thinking that a FIKI Bravo or Acclaim might fit the bill, possibly a FIKI Ovation 3. I don't know the market on these airplanes as well as I do other makes and I am interested in whether the group thinks the money is better spent on an G1000 Acclaim with a GFC700 (hopefully I could find a WAAS equipped one) or an older non-G1000 Bravo that I completely re-do the panel in with current Garmin avionics including a new Garmin autopilot. I'm estimating a completely new panel is probably at least $85K, maybe closer to $100K with autopilot so I think the total investment is similar. Looking forward to the discussion!