I've been busy building hours on my a/c - which I really adore - but now want to fly a bit further afield than the usual 1 hour, £100 bacon buttie; I've flown a fair bit to Northern France , Cornwall, Wales and Yorkshire, but the thought of chugging away at 100 kts for 3 hrs + make my backside start to tingle.
Also, I need to be able to take more than 2 people plus a meaningful fuel load.
I would like to stick with the low-wing format (no good reason, I've just got used to it and prefer the handling to 172's), so what is the next step up from what I've got, that isn't going to bankrupt me? Is it an Arrow with r/g or is it a 235 Dakota with fixed gear or will a PA28 180 make sufficient difference?
Socata's look nicely designed, but I have heard mixed reports about maintenence/spar corrossion and the chap qouted in the new edition of "Go Flying" describes his aircraft as the most thrown-up on a/c on the Kiddlington fleet....
Oh yes, budget is £35-45k. Any suggestions???
