Misiu02

I appreciate everyone's perspective thank you.

I was thinking more along the line of lead handling and precautions cause cost from a containment, handling, and risk perspective not so much a materials cost. Reducing it should reduce the cost at least a little. Although like you said probably not enough to offset the complexity.

I suppose that makes sense. I was kind of hoping that not having to deal with lead would both increase the number of refinery's that were willing to produce it as well as lower the manufacturing and environmental costs.

I really do not know all that much about G1000UL beyond some basic FAQs I have read. Is it supposed to be cheaper or more expensive better worse?

Good Morning All, I have a bit of a random question. I am curious on what everyone feels the state of general Aviation is these days? If you look out 5, 10, 20 years in the future do you see a increase, decrease or sustaining situation? I just have not been involved long enough to get a feel for things. Around me there seems to be an increase in folks getting licenses but very few of them plan to be anything other then commercial pilots and have no intent to get into GA beyond building hours early. The general consensus of the pilots I do talk to seems to be an aging average pilot age, increased costs for many things, and concerns over future government involvement.

No not really. Every little bit helps though.

I don't feel a concern about age as it relates to airframe or mechanics. Its more the little things for me. Wiring, switches, connections. Etc etc. They all can be replaced and improved but the older something is the more often I find I need to do something to keep it trustworthy. That and it seems the older something is there is just a little bit extra time required for each thing. You go in to fix a) and find two other things that should be done.

Actually I love the Debonair. I have actually spent quite a bit of time in them. I am just very uncomfortable purchasing anything manufactured before 1975 ish. Not that there is anything special about 1975 or later aircraft I just have a thing about buying a plane that old for some reason. At the end of the day I might not have a choice but it wont be my first choice.

Its a good point. I likely will be doing most of my flying solo, at least until the kids are older. However, for me its not just the act of flying itself that I enjoy (although I love it) rather its the functionality and freedom that comes along with plane ownership that I am really interested. I do not know if anyone has been following the Starlink internet corp or not but they have just completed beta testing on their Sat internet system and all signs point to enough bandwidth and low enough latency that VOIP will work from anywhere. For me this presents some unique opportunities in the Bahamas around working on unpopulated areas for the summer months at little to no costs beyond generator diesel. Which is a bit of a long term dream for me. There are no commercial flights in the Exuma's (not really anyway) and due to requirements for work I need to be able to get back to Florida on my own time with little notice. It almost requires a plane to make feasible. To be honest what I really NEED to meet all my criteria is something like a Piper Saratoga Retract. However, from a cost perspective this is not terribly feasible on my budget . The Mooney is likely about as close as I can get with the added benefit of being a hell of a lot of fun to fly, perfect when its just me, and the right price.

It is definitely an Idea. I have two very high risk individuals in my house so any training is on hold until my wife is comfortable. At the very least its worth going up a few times behind the yoke of a twin to see if it works for me. With COVID ramping up again im thinking I likely wont be buying until the end of next year at this point. Thank you for the thoughts. Regards

Good morning. Yes it's a critical component. I already have them and an epirb. I was including that in the luggage calculations. I just took the total luggage weight and divided by 3 or 4 in the estimates I provided. They add about 21 lbs to the mix.

That matches with what I have found in my research. As nice as it would be to have a twin it's likely not practical. At least not with my budget.

I do not have any time in twins but I have looked into it. I worry that the maintenance costs are going to kick me in the pants very quick. Having said that I agree over water for 80 miles on a single engine is definitely not a time to push hard.

That is a great point thank you.

I have some friends with some very nice aircraft we will be doing test and learns in with her. It might set the bar a bit to high as they are all fully glassed cockpits and I am one of the weird people that prefer analog gauges vs fully glass cockpits. The only digital systems I like is the GPS and a quality engine management system.