need advise/suggestions for buying turbo fiki

[john zeeuw]

Hi,

I am new to this forum. A friend of mine wants to step up to a turbo fiki single engine airplane. Climate control not necessary (payload). Considering Mooney. No previous expierence at all with Mooney.

His budget is around 350 to 400K USD.

So:

1) what to buy?

2) what to consider?

3) expectations?

4) pre-buy suggestions

5) weaknesses/strengts of the suggested airplane

6) any other considerations welcome.

 

Thanks.

 

John Zeeuw

[KSMooniac]

What is the mission?  Most of us here will of course say a turbo FIKI Mooney is great, but if you need to take 5 or 6 people then it won't work obviously.  

[John Pleisse]

I would buy a 2000-2004 Bravo DX with Cert TKS. The best steam gauge-auto pilot panel ever built. You'd be into it for the upper 2's to low 3's and save yourself 100k for upgrades and mx. Awesome plane. Plan on $60k a year.

[Steve Dawson]

I agree with Scott in that you need to figure your mission first and plan your purchase around that. How many people would fly with you most of the time, duration, comfort required, avionics needed or what your upgrade standard and cost and of course. What your budget for annual runing costs your comfortable with.

I think $60K/year mentioned above is out by a factor of at least 10. Check with people that already own that specific plane.

[fantom]

I passed three years ago on a low time 2004 Ovation DX, with air, for $150K and my '94 MSE. This time of year, I always think about that.

 

PS: and that was before new paint, new interior and some expensive panel upgrades