I had the opportunity to fly in the very same plane described in the
magazine today. We went for lunch at Madison, WI, which is around 50 miles
away.

My first impressions are that it had a lot of power- we were passing pattern
altitude by the end of the 5,000 foot runway with a normal climb-out. With
normal power settings it cruised about 40-50k faster than a piston Bonanza
(187-198k GS) in both directions.

The plane is very well equipped, with a Garmin 530 and 430, TCAD, and WX-500
Stormscope, along with fuel totalizer. Except for the panel for the tip tank
pumps, the rest of the instruments were pretty standard.

The ride was extremely smooth and quiet, and it retained the famed Bonanza
handling characteristics- very light on the controls, with both pitch and
roll well harmonized. It was much quieter than a piston Bonanza, and flying
was a lot lower workload than my Baron.

Also, you can stay high and keep the speed up until final- the big prop acts
like a speed brake. No more concerns about shock cooling either.

The plane also looks cool, with the extended nose and winglets. The turbine
conversion and wing tips definitely do not look like they were patched on-
the workmanship is flawless, as is the paint job. I'm not sure what the
Jaguar interior adds, but everything is tan leather, and nicely done.

I haven't gotten into all of the technical details of fuel burn, useful
load, range, and endurance yet, but will try to learn about this during the
next few days. However, I can say that this is one very nice airplane.

(By the way, our friends flew with us to lunch in an RG 172, and even though
they left around 15 minutes before us, we passed them with about a 75 knot
overtake speed.)