Having flown several hundreds of hours in tin metal cessna's, piper's and plastic (motor) glider aircraft it is time for me to move to something faster. On an earlier post I examined the options of importing an experimental from the other side of the pond..... Honestly reading all the disaster reports put me of the road to go for a lancair or glasair hot rod.
Its clear that the options are not wide. I currently love to fly and own a 110Kts motorglider with a 16L/Hr F.burn which has taken me several times over the Austrian mountains. The mission is clear 600Nm in one go without refueling..Budget is limited let's say 85K what can I get for this..Having JAR and FAA ppl licences in hand I am concidering going the FAA IFR route and buying a US metal frame I see several commander 112TC's or mooneys which are avaible at dumping prices most of them have old non compliant IFR avionics and restricted to EU VFR. I am thinking to go for a steady progress upgrade (if I can find an avionics shop that certifies the work I do myself, as I am of trade in my early days an avionics specialist).
If I would go for an EASA annex II aircraft things are much simpler maintenance/upgrade wise however the IFR route is closed...
Knowing that yes to fly safely IFR all year long one needs a Hot prop and TKS etc...but then again your ending up with min 250K euro birds..a la Cirrus.
The question is..stick to VFR (e.g. EASA annexII) and keep it safe virtually no prolonged VFR en-route weather (600Nm flying) between October and April or go IFR with a non EASA aircraft N reg (112TC or old TB20..) and do the upgrades on a step up approach alltough it will come with a huge bang for upgrading to 430's additional DME etc...How limited is my IFR without all the de-ice stuff..?
Still the MCR01 VLA as a fast safe VFR plastic plane is tempting with the additional BRS option........
Everything comes with a budget, my fear is that for serious IFR you need to dig deep in the pocket..
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