Op,
Have you thought about a Piper Lance? Early one, with the conventional tail, non-turbo. That cabin is a beauty. Good mill out the front, decent speed. Sweet climb performance when undergross. If I can ever afford a worthwhile step up from Arrow costs, the Lance is on my dream sheet.
That's a very nice plane. My instrument instructor has one, he's let me fly it, I like it a lot. My partner, however, has no interest. His Bonanza is a faster version in all but load carrying. It's just him and his wife, no weight issues there...
The reason you see so many tapped-out Travel Airs is that they are very popular as trainers - real workhorses. It's just that some of them have had most of the horse worked out of 'em.
I see a fair amount with less than 6000 hours, but seem to be pretty rough. There are a few out there right now that seemingly have possibilities, but that's it. Hundreds of twin comanches, though.
Power is safety IMO.
With twin prices where they are why not have 600HP in a Baron or 310 class aircraft? You can always pull them back to Travelair speeds and fuel burn if you want. It might take a little while and some training to get used to, but I've never talked to anyone that wanted less performance.
I don't like the fuel burn. Even throttled back you're looking at 24 gals per hour. Everything I'm looking at suggests that it'll be significantly more expensive than the travel air, provided, the travel air is a quality plane.
To the OP.
Ya gotta start somewhere. A Travel Air is as good a place as any.
Since you have a partner, the first three years won't be as bad as it might have been - and especially the First year.
In three years you will have spent the purchase price of the airplane again, in maintenance and upgrades.
Finding a plane that is not a complete money pit due to 'deferred maintenance' - aka, outright lies in the logs - is the major first hurdle. You will need an expert A&P in Travel Airs to take to each plane for the pre buy (or bring the plane to him) inspection.
You are gong to be vastly discouraged before you find the plane that you SHOULD put your money into - as opposed to the one that you want (beware of shiny things dangled in front of you). Spending money up front on travel and lodging for your A&P will be money saved down the road.
Good luck
denny-o and Fat Albert The Apache.
Thanks for the good luck wish and the suggestions. We wouldn't consider a purchase without a pre buy who is an expert in Beech products. Ideally, we'd like to find one in the area where we'd be buying that does not have a relationship with the seller, but we'd fly someone in if that was the right decision.
Funny aside. the guy who bought our 172 flew in from Louisiana with his mechanic. The guy spent 30 minutes taking inspection plates off, my partner took them for a short flight around the pattern, they pulled out cash, and headed home. They were on the ground less than 2 hours. I knew there was no reason for a pre buy, but they didn't. There was nothing wrong with the plane. No deferred maintenance, no outstanding issues, I guess it showed.