LFHNflightstudent wrote:
there are some very capable TBM 850’s available for half that
That would be very rare finding these days… any TBM 850 would be hard to find. Controller and PlaneCheck combined list 2 TBM 850 and 2 TBM 700 for sale. Looking at other sites return same aircrafts.
Yep, and the prices are stratospheric. We could find a tbm700 for less than a million 3 or 4 years ago, may be not the most up to date avionics. That tbm700 on planecheck is nearly 2M.
Getting back to topic ….
The basically needed IFR functionality is a 2002 TB20GT plus LPV capability.
LPV is now blocked in the UK but remains relevant abroad, but a lot less often than one might think, for a UK based plane, due to customs+immigration being needed on every flight, and most of those have an ILS, or there is a nearby ILS alternate.
The rest is basically eye candy.
Specific functionality like tablet interfaces and/or a keypad for data entry are worth having, if you need to depart in a hurry.
This TB20 has an autopilot which cannot fly an ILS if GPS is not available, which in the European context is a retrograde step from what it had previously.
Peter wrote:
The basically needed IFR functionality is a 2002 TB20GT plus LPV capability.
Mode S?
Peter wrote:
The basically needed IFR functionality is a 2002 TB20GT plus LPV capability
100%. Slaved HSI, WAAS GPS, single-axis coupled AP, ForeFlight, and two radios is sufficient. I’ve done lots even with no AP. More work but for sure possible.
Personally I think the upgrade and total “package” of the airplane itself is quite nice. Yes, the GFC500 has the shortcoming of needing GPS, but it is all in all a very different piece of kit than the old KFC’s, not least due to the speed modes and smart glide. With the G500TXI as well as the other mods it is the closest you can get to a “new” airplane feel but for 1/3rd the price of a comparable SR22 or similar.
As for what capability it adds we can argue until the cows come home, yet what an upgrade like this certainly does is to make the (single) pilots job easier with integrated solutions including the Ipad and Flightstream e.t.c. Do you “need” it to fly IFR? Of course not. It it nice to have? I bet it is a huge difference to steam with loose tabletts and other gadgets being fixed to various RAM mounts, an AP which in theory can stall the airplane and so on. Sure, the KFC150 and similar are rock solid AP’s but e.g. they lack some things the new ones finally do have, primarily speed modes.
The Elephant in the room is however, why is it for sale after such an upgrade? Did the upgrade go overboard financially or did the owner decide that despite all this he still preferrs a different airplane? The latter is not unheard of… I recall a case where someone bought a brand new Acclaim Ultra, had it ferried to Europe and ended up buying into a SET even while the Acclaim was on the way here… expensive change of mind but it happens?
We are living in a time where used GTN750 delivered tomorrow are worth more than factory new GTN750Xi that you can order today with an unclear delivery date in some distant future.
To use decades old Vref data (that was always only used to try to negotiate the seller down) or experience to argue that the seller will not get his investment back is quite funny.
Therefore it might well be that the seller at least tries his luck in current market environment to sell the plane even at a premium to his investment.
Malibuflyer wrote:
We are living in a time where used GTN750 delivered tomorrow are worth more than factory new GTN750Xi that you can order today with an unclear delivery date in some distant future.
Not only avionics. Delivery time for something as mundane as a propeller is now up to a year.
This more and more makes things like buying some avionic museum and upgrading it to your specs an exercise of patience. And older GNSx30W boxes might gain value yet again as the new stuff often has ridikkulous amounts of waiting times indeed.
Seeing what is brewing in the East right now, cargo routes will most probably be yet again affected, not only by a possible moratorium of flights over Russia but also capcity if e.g. a Reforger Operation US-Europe would become necessary. In which case however GA parts will be the least of our worries.
If I was looking to buy this aircraft I would consider it a long term project , this makes the reliability and availability of the instruments and indicators a prime factor, much of the original factory kit is becoming unreliable or unavailable, this aircraft solves those problems.
I would base my negotiations on halving the dealers commission for a quick sale as I think that even with half the expected commission the dealer would snatch the Cheque right out of my hand.
I from a personal point of view don’t like the position of the GA switch and would look to move it to the throttle or stick, When you need that switch it needs to be at your fingertips.
Lastly a big thanks to Snoopy, his term Avionics Museum made me laugh as it hit the truth of most GA aircraft I see for sale.
A_and_C wrote:
If I was looking to buy this aircraft I would consider it a long term project
The key question is what type of projects we are talking about.
The times where the best strategy has been “I buy the plane naked and adjust everything I need myself” are gone for now. If I want an airplane to fly within the next 1-2 years I need to buy exactly the airplane I want to fly (with the avionics, etc. I want).
It’s obviously different if one regards such a plane as an “it’s never finished” project and does not really care if a piece of new avionic is installed this year, next year or even later.
