Sure, but the buy-in is about $1M higher. That buys a lot of maintenance and avgas.
@AdamFrisch a nice JetProp dlx will be less than €1MM
https://www.planecheck.com/?ent=da&id=47642 local copy
These are not hobby aircraft so close to 100% dispatch on maintenance is an objective. If a vintage pressurised MEP could be brought to less than 6 weeks of maintenance downtime a year I would be very impressed 
Shanwick wrote:
I have an NA Twin Comanche and whilst dispatch rate has been 100% over 3 years I do wish I could fly above rather than under weather.
Have you considered to retrofit Rajay Turbos? I believe that can be done to NA Twincos. Or upgrade to a Turbo Twincomanche.
Peter wrote:
400fpm is certainly ok.FL160 is barely enough for European IFR if you want to reliably avoid ice by flying VMC on top. It will work quite often but it won’t be enough for the majority of Alps crossings if there is cloud about. I am not sure if wx is becoming more convective (many previous threads on weather) but I’ve seen a lot of ISA+17 conditions and that really knocks the aircraft ceiling.
From my experience, it is. important to have a good theoretical climb rate so that when you get into icing, which degrades your climb rate, you can still punch through and get on top. I’ve experienced a PC-12 doing 300 fpm at FL100…
I have little time over the Alps in weather, so can’t comment.
Crossing France and less daunting mountain ranges one needs FL 200 quite often… Cloud tops are not a nice place to stay in – icy and turbulent.
Summary: I believe a good turbocharged engine is (unfortunately) a must have, and yes it comes with a bunch of issues attacheds…
www.planecheck.com?ent=da&id=49138 local copy
This has to be one of the best PA30 around. At FL200 solid 200KTAS plus.
The Twinkie is a great machine, just make sure your engineer understands some of the systems.
That particular machine ticks pretty much every box you could want. A bit of digging shows it up for sale with various brokers over the last 5 years. I guess you’re talking north of €10k a year on mx at least?
RobertL18C wrote:
This has to be one of the best PA30 around.
zuutroy wrote:
That particular machine ticks pretty much every box you could want. A bit of digging shows it up for sale with various brokers over the last 5 years. I guess you’re talking north of €10k a year on mx at least?
with the equipment mentioned this PA30 will have between 420 and 440 kg payload. Pretty little to be able to travel properly with it.
Oh. I thought the useful load was closer to 600 kg based on numbers quoted on the usual ‘specs’ pages. Is there really 150kg+ in that equipment?
@TB_flyer am not sure how you establish this number? Even well equipped they typically boast around 600 kg useful load
I think the tip tanks also add to the MAUW limit
Sounds like a great Twinkie. It seems to have it all. I would add the vortex generators for which there is an STC and I believe coxt about €1500. They don’t lose you any cruise speed and they really add to the stability on final and round out.
