Your favourite Swedish vendor of furniture would probably say “schraubst noch oder fliegst du schon”?
(“You flying yet or still tinkering?”)
boscomantico wrote:
Your favourite Swedish vendor of furniture would probably say “schraubst noch oder fliegst du schon”?
(“You flying yet or still tinkering?”)
Couldn’t fly it without the winglets. Will be needing a cabin entertainment system next.
Groan… Are you grounded again?
I suppose you could call it grounded, but made sense to put winglets on as was doing the cabin sealing and changing some electronic stuff (solid state voltage regulators, which were the reason the radios cut out). It’s only been 3 years, what’s another couple of weeks? 
Soooo… you’re almost done…sounds like it’s about time to sell this one and upgrade to….
What?
Definitely a Merlin. Faster, more range and an absolute bargain. Take the cheapest one there is. what_next will confirm that it’s the perfect next step for Adam.
achimha wrote:
what_next will confirm that it’s the perfect next step for Adam.
Personally I’d take a Merlin any time over the Commander. I really did not hate the Metroliner that I flew (as many others did) but I did not love it either… However, there are few other production planes that ever got so much speed and range out of JET A1 than the Merlin and the Metro. And noise and discomfort.
Merlins are cool planes. Insane range. I have friend who lives in Paraguay who regularly flies to the US and even Canada with just one stop. He does Paraguay-Mexico-US. He has a IIIB and it will do almost 2600nm if pushed. Pretty good speed, too and a high pressure differential cabin, making for a comfortable ride for longer trips. I just don’t like they way they need a lot of rwy and can’t deal with unimproved strips. As the world becomes more GA unfriendly, being able to land on short strips out of the grasps of Signature, security maniacs, jobsworths, etc will become more important. The future belongs to rugged planes, like the PC12, PC24, Turbo Commanders, Caravans etc, not to dainty things that need a lot of support, lots of ballroom smooth tarmac etc. That’s why I think the TBM won’t do well long term. It’s too expensive for what it can actually do, when the PC12 will do everything better except go faster. If the industry has shown us anything is that a comfortable cabin and rugged design will win over high speed in the long run.
No, the next plane would be a 1000 model Commander, or a Piaggio P180 Avanti. Just noticed that a few P180 slipped below $1million mark just recently… 
AdamFrisch wrote:
No, the next plane would be a 1000 model Commander, or a Piaggio P180 Avanti. Just noticed that a few P180 slipped below $1million mark just recently…
Ballroom smooth tarmac…
3 years with a plane you have flown for how long? 2 months in that time? How do you keep your currency I wonder.
If your saga shows anything it is really that “bargains” can bite massively. Your patience and preserverance are admirable but at the same time, I wonder what flying you could have gotten done in the mean time in a plane which did not have that many issues from the beginning.
I am also uneasy with the state of planes that are allowed to fly in the US with massive maintenance issues. If I remember right your Aerostar had engines which would probably not have passed any inspection in Europe for starters and the Commander was basically not airworthy at all when you bought it with a leaking cabin and all the issues you had fixed with that guru. Maybe there is a point after all, that scrutiny is so strong in Europe on airplane maintenance status.
Yet I am extremely grateful for you sharing your stories with us in such a upfront and honest manner. They may well serve as a warning and encouragement at the same time; warning to make darn sure a buy is good before comitting and encouragement to live your dream no matter what.
Adam, I really hope we get to meet some day.
