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Old 21st Aug 2010, 23:36
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madlandrover
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
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+1 for IO540's post and others. Decide what role you actually need/want the aircraft for - the turbo versions are "better" and overall more capable aircraft, but you need to be in a position to use that capability regularly for it to make sense. Even my own 160hp non-turbo fixed pitch prop single will happily maintain cruise TAS up to and beyond FL130, even if the rate of climb is a bit slow up there...

Recent experience teaching on both a turbo and non-turbo PA28RT is that the turbo version does allow a higher cruise speed but naturally at the expense of fuel burn. Below FL70 or so there's no practical advantage to the turbo unless you're doing seriously long trips - for average bladder length trips there aren't that many miles in it!
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