Plane for My/Our Mission?

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Garavar

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Garavar
New to forums sorry if this posted in wrong section....

I am a student pilot doing my training that I started 13 years ago. Although, I am not done with training I am looking to buy an airplane now as it's needed for my company.

My business partner currently rents a single engine airplane (whatever type is available) to fly weekly from South Florida to Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa or Jacksonville (different destination each week). Which costs about $1,400-$2000 per trip wet.

I am doing my training so I spend $450 per session wet. So after talking with accountant we figured why not buy, get the tax benefit and also have freedom of our plane our time.

Anyway, now we are trying to figure out what to buy or missions are simple yet different. Looking for some help.

My partner needs the airplane to get him there fast. He does not fly so he has to hire pilot for flight which isn't issue we have found some. He wants to get their the quickest way possible. He doesn't always travel alone and sometimes has equipment so he needs payload for 3-4 adults or 3 adults plus equipment on occasions. He also has to make 1 yearly trip to Dominician Republic as we have an office there as well. His main and primary goal is speed.

I need the plane for training and fun, as I enjoy flying, want to do IFR after PP and use the airplane to fly to Bimini or other near by places for general flying pleasure. Also interested in donating my time to Angel Flight. I'd love to fly to NY as my wife and I do it monthly but nothing beats commercial so that's out.

We do not have a budget, this is not to sound pretentious, just know budget is always question. We can pay whatever is needed to complete our missions however we see no reason to do so. Would be a waste to purchase as an example a PC-12 for such short trips. Additionally the less we spend the more money at the end of year in bonuses :) so we are trying to keep it reasonable.

Our initial thought is a SR22 or SR22T . The T might be overkill though, not sure and the extra maintenance might not be worth slight boost in speed for our sea level area of operation and distance.

Also if Cirrus is the best choice there are so many variants we don't know where to start. G6 would be overkill in our opinion for sure since we don't need all the new bells an whistles. G5 might be over kill as well, don't know. But definitely want an airplane with G1000/Cirrus Perspective since I am currently training on G1000 in a 172. Don't want to regress.

So feed me momma/papa birds, what's your thoughts? What should we look for? Single Engine, no Jets since I can't fly them. Thanks in advance.

Mission Summary
- Speed
- G1000/Cirrus Prospective
- 3-4 Full Size Adults
- Average Flight 200 miles, once a year long range flight 800 miles.
 
A G5 or G6 naturally aspirated (non turbo) SR22 sounds right if it can fit your people plus equipment scenario. Get a mentor pilot for a while too if you are planning on being able to use it reliably. FLorida’s weather tends to be thunderstorms rather than widespread IMC but still would be beneficial for a low time pilot flying this type of mission
 
G1000 is an avionics cul-de-sac, and Garmin buttonology is pretty transferable between the 650/750 series and the G1000. I would personally favor 650/750/G3X style avionics as they will be modular and upgradeable for decades.

For 200 miles, speed is sort of a silly target, you'll pay per knot. You could get a DA40, SR22, or G1000 converted King Air and the difference between them all will likely be 15 minutes.

For 4 adults, though, I'd use useful load + 3 hours endurance as my payload target, as that will be the hardest to pin down. Six-place aircraft should provide what you're after most reliably, but "Heavy fours" are out there too. You'll definitely want to be in the 300hp class IMHO.

Insurance is gonna phong you both, to coin a phrase from Knight's Tale. :D
 
RudyP said:
A G5 or G6 naturally aspirated (non turbo) SR22 sounds right if it can fit your people plus equipment scenario. Get a mentor pilot for a while too if you are planning on being able to use it reliably. FLorida’s weather tends to be thunderstorms rather than widespread IMC but still would be beneficial for a low time pilot flying this type of mission
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I am prepared to fly with instructor even after PPL not intending to do bare mimimum training then going buck wild. Finding mentor pilot might be difficult.
 
schmookeeg said:
G1000 is an avionics cul-de-sac, and Garmin buttonology is pretty transferable between the 650/750 series and the G1000. I would personally favor 650/750/G3X style avionics as they will be modular and upgradeable for decades.

For 200 miles, speed is sort of a silly target, you'll pay per knot. You could get a DA40, SR22, or G1000 converted King Air and the difference between them all will likely be 15 minutes.

For 4 adults, though, I'd use useful load + 3 hours endurance as my payload target, as that will be the hardest to pin down. Six-place aircraft should provide what you're after most reliably, but "Heavy fours" are out there too. You'll definitely want to be in the 300hp class IMHO.

Insurance is gonna phong you both, to coin a phrase from Knight's Tale. :D
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Yeah for sure, but saving 15-20 minutes each way is worth it for our business to a certain extent. Not going to go into detail but every second we are in the air or driving we are not making money. Fort Lauderdale to Fort Myers is only a 1 hour and 50 minute drive. But renting an airplane to save an hour each way actually puts us net positive. So that's why speed is important but probably not SR22 to King Air worth it. Plus don't want to do a twin.

But a 172 to Fort Myers wouldn't save much time hence the need for speed.

Please give more details on 750 and G3X being a novice I am having trouble following you. I first learned on 430 and learning now on G1000 so I don't know the in betweens.
 
So Bonanza with a nice panel ;)

Fred
 
Well, you're not going to like this answer maybe, but if saving 15 or 20 minutes per trip of your time is worth spending tens of thousands of dollars more on the aircraft, then I think you should alter your plan. Consider buying a plane and hiring someone else to fly it. They'll drag the plane out, get the gas, do the pre-flight, check the weather, do the post-flight, etc., and that's going to save you time and money on each flight. You can still sit up front and fly part of the flight it you want.

The alternative for a lot of people is this - they get into the mission mindset of using their plane for business, they take shortcuts to save time, they push the limits on the weather, and they finally do something that ends up a tragedy. Flying for fun is great, flying for business is great, mixing the two together can work...but if you're always in a rush, I see it being a continual conflict with significant risk.

The plane? A light twin.
 
Takes me at least an hour from the time I leave my house to get in the air and the airport is 15 minutes away.
 
Garavar said:
but saving 15-20 minutes each way is worth it for our business to a certain extent.
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If that's the case then dispatch reliability is going to far outweigh any sort of speed gains.
 
How often will you fly? What is your anticipated dispatch rate? How comfortable do these 3-4 full size adults need to be?

I’m not totally sold on the SR22 because the adults in the back will hate the space (and zero carry on). It’s tight when we stick our kids back there. Granted we use their floorboard for some storage. But it is the right amount of power and speed.

I kind of like the T206H idea. But given your budget and that seconds matter, I’m really tempted to say Meridian, or even a SF50 VisionJet.
 
Albany Tom said:
Well, you're not going to like this answer maybe, but if saving 15 or 20 minutes per trip of your time is worth spending tens of thousands of dollars more on the aircraft, then I think you should alter your plan. Consider buying a plane and hiring someone else to fly it. They'll drag the plane out, get the gas, do the pre-flight, check the weather, do the post-flight, etc., and that's going to save you time and money on each flight. You can still sit up front and fly part of the flight it you want.

The alternative for a lot of people is this - they get into the mission mindset of using their plane for business, they take shortcuts to save time, they push the limits on the weather, and they finally do something that ends up a tragedy. Flying for fun is great, flying for business is great, mixing the two together can work...but if you're always in a rush, I see it being a continual conflict with significant risk.

The plane? A light twin.
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Of course as I said in my original post my partner is the one that needs speed and he doesn't fly, he will have someone preparing the airplane and flying it, he gets to airport and jump in.

I will be the only one flying for leisure and charity I don't care about speed. I'll preflight at my own peace and cancel flights if any risk.
 
I'd look for a light twin, then. Something that will carry the load you need. A twin is going to be faster than most singles, and if you're night flying or doing your long over waters, I'd rather have an extra engine all else being equal. In Florida, I wouldn't think you'd need anything turbocharged, or have to be too concerned about icing. Maybe a Seneca?
 
Albany Tom said:
I'd look for a light twin, then. Something that will carry the load you need. A twin is going to be faster than most singles, and if you're night flying or doing your long over waters, I'd rather have an extra engine all else being equal. In Florida, I wouldn't think you'd need anything turbocharged, or have to be too concerned about icing. Maybe a Seneca?
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What about G36 instead of Seneca? Since we only do long water once a year.
 
I'd look for a van. Much higher reliability, no preflight required, much lower cost for a diver vs a pilot. Charter a plane to go across the water when needed. The days you lose through maintenance will be offset by the slightly slower door-to-door trip on the road - not to mention all weather workability in a van.
 
Garavar said:
He doesn't always travel alone and sometimes has equipment so he needs payload for 3-4 adults or 3 adults plus equipment on occasions.
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I’d look for a 6 seater. That means it actually hauls 4+baggage.

Saratoga, lance, bonanza, 206, 210, etc
 
Lance or Seneca. Saratoga's don't seem to have the useful for 4 adults. Bonanza's are tight in the shoulders.
 
Spinka said:
So Bonanza with a nice panel ;)
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I thought this would have been the number one answer ... it usually is!

Got a friend currently working on the purchase of a Commander 114 Turbo. Beautiful plane, wide cabin, has A/C and many other great features and the Commander is a stunningly beautiful airplane.
 
Garavar said:
What about G36 instead of Seneca? Since we only do long water once a year.
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They're similar...I'd rather have the twin. Maybe just personal preference. They're probably closer than you think in price, at least to purchase. Both solid aircraft with good history as far as I know. Two engines is going to be more maintenance than one, of course. On paper the Seneca is a little faster, and while it has slightly more payload you probably aren't going to want to have it at full gross. Disadvantage or advantage is that you'd have to be multi-engine rated, but that's supposed to be a fun add-on to get. Possible advantage is that you get multi-engine time. If you're in business doing something else, maybe that's of no value.
 
Since I want to use it a single is really the preference.

What's the consensus on Matrix?
 
If you are determined to stay with a single. Look at bonanza. Give the speed and payload you are looking for. The cirrus is great, but tight on space if you want adults and equipment.
 
Garavar said:
Since I want to use it a single is really the preference.

What's the consensus on Matrix?
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Insurance is crazy on a low time non ifr pilot with no time in type. I thought someone here knew someone that was quoted 40k for the pressurized pa46
 
Racerx said:
Insurance is crazy on a low time non ifr pilot with no time in type. I thought someone here knew someone that was quoted 40k for the pressurized pa46
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Yikes good point on insurance with any plane. The plane is going in company name and as I said it will be flown by ATP and/or CFI every time (depending if my partner is traveling or I am training and even after IFR cert I would use instructor for a significant amount of time longer) evil insurance companies won't cover give us a break there? Lol
 
Another quedtion that just popped up. Do any of these airplanes have power outlets/plugs for laptop. Most of the trips are short haul as I said but for those occasional long hall trips partner might need to plug in laptop to keep working.

Sr22, Seneca, G36, Matrix, any power plugs?
 
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