Minimum airplane for mission

[Tom-D]

Yup, said he ideally wanted a IFR family hauler, already knows the value of /g, and we both know real IFR in the PNW = FIKI.



Ether way, the OP has to decide for himself, got a couple different options posted here he could consider.

To live a long life as a pilot any where you'll make prudent decisions.

Flying in Ice when you don't have to is not smart in my humble opinion.

When you must, you must. Then get the aircraft with all the equipment, hot prop, hot wind screen, turbine, G.
For his mission simply doesn't require he do this when it is Icing.

 

[MIFlyer]

To live a long life as a pilot any where you'll make prudent decisions.

Flying in Ice when you don't have to is not smart in my humble opinion.

When you must, you must. Then get the aircraft with all the equipment, hot prop, hot wind screen, turbine, G.
For his mission simply doesn't require he do this when it is Icing.

Yes, my thinking is I"d rather spend money to have more than I need in case of inadvertent. I'd rather have 500 useful i'm not using, FIKI when I don't need it and 500NM more gas in the tank than the mission calls for to avoid being in the 30% of pilots that seem to somehow run out of fuel.

 

[MIFlyer]

And to clarify, i plan to get IR, but mostly for marine layer days, not hard IFR

 

[txflyer]

I hate IFR in GA singles. It's dangerous as hell.

What if the mill quits? What if the vacuum pump quits? What if the genny quits? If you fly through clouds in Winter, you're going to get iced up eventually. That's no fun.

Who needs to get there that bad anyway?

 

[MIFlyer]

I hate IFR in GA singles. It's dangerous as hell.

What if the mill quits? What if the vacuum pump quits? What if the genny quits? If you fly through clouds in Winter, you're going to get iced up eventually. That's no fun.

Who needs to get there that bad anyway?

Right, so a FIKI capable twin with good avionics and lots of recurrent training? I can fly that plane for 10 years (gas, maint, insurance) based on the purchase price differential for a similar single.

We have 200 days of overcast a year here. most of those days it's like 55 degrees outside. Seems like those wouldn't be bad days to fly, as long as you were trained and equipped in case you hit ice in the clouds while climbing through them to get on top

 

[MIFlyer]

http://www.seattle.gov/living-in-seattle/environment/weather/averages-and-records only two months does the average high get below 50.

obviously it gets cold as you climb (unless there's an inversion)

 

[txflyer]

Right, so a FIKI capable twin with good avionics and lots of recurrent training? I can fly that plane for 10 years (gas, maint, insurance) based on the purchase price differential for a similar single.

We have 200 days of overcast a year here. most of those days it's like 55 degrees outside. Seems like those wouldn't be bad days to fly, as long as you were trained and equipped in case you hit ice in the clouds while climbing through them to get on top

If I were going to fly family through scud all the time I'd want a FIKI twin.

Still dangerous as hell but manageable if the squirrels go on strike on one engine.

 

[James331]

I hate IFR in GA singles. It's dangerous as hell.

What if the mill quits? What if the vacuum pump quits? What if the genny quits? If you fly through clouds in Winter, you're going to get iced up eventually. That's no fun.

Who needs to get there that bad anyway?

The multi vs single hype is a little silly. What if, blah blah, you're more likely to fail as a pilot than the engine is likely to fail on a single.

Shy of a king air, is rather just take a 210

 

[NoHeat]

I hate IFR in GA singles. It's dangerous as hell.

What if the mill quits?

Pull the red handle.

Seriously, that is what I would do.