Page 28 - Jan21T&T

Owner’s
Corner
Confessions of a G1000 Driver
A section dedicated to the writings and ownership stories of T&T readers.
by Alex Jones, Owner-Pilot
Ibought my G58 Baron in Janu- ary 2015 as an upgrade from the A36 Bonanza I had been f lying
for four years. The concurrent moves – Bonanza to Baron and modular to G1000 avionics – both offered improved utility with some add- itional challenges.
The Baron has allowed me to travel safely around the country with my family for years. It has carried us to some of our most memorable vaca- tions, including Nantucket, northern Michigan, Montana, Colorado and oth- ers. From our current home in Chi- cago, we can fly to central Ohio for family visits in just over 90 minutes
26 • TWIN & TURBINE / January 2021
each way – something we do at least half a dozen times a year. This easily wins over a 6-hour drive, and I can beat the airlines door-to-door.
Single to Twin
The purported safety advantage of a twin over a single is one of the most oft-cited and controversial reasons for the move. I will leave that topic aside and focus on other practical improvements that get little attention yet make a big difference in everyday life.
The Baron has a spacious nose baggage compartment. It can hold three carry-on size suitcases, in addition to the chocks, tow bar and
quarts of oil I carry. The aft baggage is the same as the A36; very useful, but not that large. These three cases just wouldn’t make the trip in its single sibling. For a family, this makes the airplane practical for weeklong cross- country trips we couldn’t have made in the Bonanza without sending our luggage by UPS ahead of time.
Living in the Great Lakes region, known-ice certification increases the plane’s utility between October and April when there is often a stratus cloud deck with icing potential somewhere along our route. A piston twin like the Baron with “k-ice” is capable of climbing or descending