Yesterday was a beautiful day, so I got a safety pilot to ride along and practiced instrument approaches into Colorado Springs main airport. There was enough turbulence to make things challenging and a fun time was had by all. After putting my plane away, I walked over to an open hangar to take a look inside. There was a beautiful Glasair III, an SNJ (Navy version of the T-6), and a Pitts 2-seater inside. Nice, very nice.

I was talking to the owner of the Glasair when he mentioned he had a nearly completed Lancair 360 in the back of the hangar that was for sale. Of course, I had to go take a look. The builder is an electrical engineer, so his wiring work was immaculate. The cockpit had dual Garmin GNC 430 systems (each has a IFR GPS, comm radio, nav radio, ILS radio, and a beautiful color moving map), a two-axis autopilot, and a Sandel electronic HSI. All it needed was a transponder and the engine instruments. The engine was a high compression upgrade of the IO-360 that produces 230 HP and it had a top notch propellor installed. All told, he estimates the project needs about 300 hours to complete. The work throughout is first rate. It also has the big tail mod mentioned in the link.

Out of morbid curiosity, I asked him how much he wanted for the project. He said $60,000. Oh, man! The engine, prop, and avionics alone cost about that much! Hmmm, I've began my campaign to convince the wife that this is a really good deal. The odds look grim, but I gots to give it a try!

If that doesn't work, there was also a beautiful 1965 Cessna 310 for sale in the mid '60s. The engines would need overhaul in a couple years and the avionics could stand an upgrade (replace an old nav/comm with a Garmin GNC-300XL and add an autopilot), plus I'd need to get a multi-engine rating and a lot of training to fly the beast.

* My case won't be helped by the two accidents at Meadowlake yesterday morning while I was there. There were no injuries in either case, but a Cessna 172 and an old Cessna 175 were totaled. I didn't see either accident happen, just the outcome on the C-172 accident.