If you can afford it I would tend to go with the newer aircraft rather than the 20 years older one. Factory fitted option are far easier than retrofit (assuming you can even retrofit).
This of course assumes the aircraft checks out well in pre-buy.
For that kind of money you could, of course, also buy a real airplane….
I once went to collect an aircraft from a hangar in Louisville Kentucky, and the owner was chatting away to us, and in conversation asked which we thought would be the most expensive aircraft to maintain in the hangar. My eyes scanned the machinery, and passing over a King Air E90 I confidently pointed at a Lear 35. The guy laughed, said I was wrong, and pointed to his Aerostar.
Apologies to Adam, I know he loves that aircraft and would differ with the opinion, but remembering this story made me smile.
I am not convinced that an Aerostar can cost more money than a Lear 35 … (or: I would be VERY surprised)
Well, both are pressurised and have more or less sophisticated avionics, but the Aerostar has engines, that need much more attention than those of the Lear. But this reflects just one fraction of total operating costs. Crew, fuel, purchase, fees are not included in the maintenance costs…
The man was making a joke, but maybe underneath it all was a grain of truth, that the Aerostar was not as cheap as you might imagine. Or maybe he was sore after a recent bill from the maintenance shop.
I agree with you, when you think about buying an aircraft, the range of options is very wide.
I ruled out Avgas twins because I don’t have the kind of money it takes to operate one and also because I think a turboprop or diesel would be more consistent with longer range ie going to remote places in Europe and Africa.
I give the preference to TB20 over Cirrus because I’m afraid the bigger engine would translate into higher costs, and I didn’t see any fully deiced for a comparable price.
Aircrafts in the same category seem more likely to be C182, Piper, M20K…
Here I’m moving back in this thread and answering Peter’s post #4
Link
What do you plan to spend the €50-60k on?
Good news. I mixed up with your answer related to the older 1982 selling for approx. 35k€.
I’m afraid of the KMD550 + KLN94 after reading your explanations. The TB20 we currently rent has a GNS530 + GNS430. I thought this one would be equivalent.
Since it’ll need to be upgraded, I feel the selling price should be negotiated down. In my flying club, they paid 70k€ to upgrade a DR400 to Garmin 500 with GTN650, but it also included a new transponder and audio panel I think.
Maybe the right price for F-GRBZ should be closer to 120k€.
they paid 70k€ to upgrade a DR400 to Garmin 500 with GTN650, but it also included a new transponder and audio panel I think.
I know a G500 is expensive, but shouldn’t that kind of work be more in the region of 30 to 40k Euros?
Maybe the right price for F-GRBZ should be closer to 120k€.
I can’t speak for this seller obviously but I would not accept that offer. The whole issue of PRNAV in Europe is vague and may never become operationally relevant to light GA. For example, in the UK, last I heard they were talking about making the London TMA PRNAV but only to traffic going in or out of the London airports (Heathrow, Gatwick, etc) so irrelevant to GA. The KLN94 works fine for European IFR – see my trip writeups.
I know a G500 is expensive, but shouldn’t that kind of work be more in the region of 30 to 40k Euros?
I was quoted €48k+VAT by Socata to install a G500 in my TB20. That included installing 1 x GNS430W.
