A Well Overdone Question ... What Is The Dream ???
As a new pilot who is completely addicted, I was wondering about the age old question : what is the perfect aeroplane for recreational flights of 500 nm or so in the South Western United States with a lot of quite big mountains if one has a reasonable amount of money to spend but wouldn't mind recovering some costs through rentals / partial flight school leasebacks?
As a low time private pilot, this is obviously about fantasy rather than reality in the near to medium term but it does help clarify a training path which will certainly include an IR.
The question doesn't have anything to do with a possible professional pathway as I am way too old to consider it.
The contenders, at roughly the same price, are :
1. A new DA42 TDI
2. A 5 year old Baron
3. A 10 year old Piper Meridian
The compromises that I have identified so far boil down to the following :
- Composite versus traditional skins / airframes
- Newer versus older aircraft
- Advances in avionics over the last 10 years
- Singles versus twins
- Avgas versus Jet A
- Pressurised versus oxygen
- Established versus more recent marques
- Warranties versus private costs
- The ability to reduce costs by putting an aeroplane into a rental / school fleet
Thoughts would be appreciated ..... So far, I think that if I had to allocate 100 points between the three aircraft, I would give the Meridian 35, the DA42 34 and the Baron 31.