Short list wanted - popular 4-seat single engine land

New to powered flight. It's a jungle out there.

Seeking the short list of the most popular 4-seat single engine
aircraft made in the last ~20 years. What are the best options?

(Used, fixed gear.)

::tuno

"Tuno" wrote in message
oups.com...
Seeking the short list of the most popular 4-seat single engine
aircraft made in the last ~20 years. What are the best options?

Define your typical mission.

Vaughn

Transportation for family of four. Mostly VFR but some IFR. Rarely
more than 1000 miles one-way. Southwest USA.

"Tuno" wrote in message
ups.com...
Transportation for family of four. Mostly VFR but some IFR. Rarely
more than 1000 miles one-way. Southwest USA.


Easy choice

C182 or C182T

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_182

Aspirated C182 will limit your IFR in the West since MEA's are occasionally
over 12,000 and regardless of what might be published as a service ceiling
climb performance of a C182 fully loaded above 12,000 seems anemic. Any ice
collection is just plain frighting.

If your budget and skills allow then the ideal SEL fixed gear aircraft is my
all time favorite the C208.

Howard
C182P

On Jul 20, 5:29 pm, "Howard Nelson" wrote:
"Tuno" wrote in message

ups.com...

Transportation for family of four. Mostly VFR but some IFR. Rarely
more than 1000 miles one-way. Southwest USA.

Easy choice

C182 or C182T

God, why? Unless he's also hauling granite why would me want to burn
that much fuel to go slow? Sure, an 18 wheeler can haul everything you
need but not everyone needs to haul that much. As you putt around at
130 knots in the C-182 some guy is going to zip by you on the same
fuel doing 200 knots in a Mooney.

-Robert

Tuno,

Turbocharging is of interested to you, since the SW US is hot and high.
Do you want to go into dirtstrips, too? Short strips? How much does
speed (and thus travel time) matter? Why only fixed gear?

My ranking would be:

Cirrus SR 22 and SR20.
Socata TB-10 Tobago.
Diamond DA-40.
Grumman Tiger.
Piper PA-28 Archer.
For dirtstrips, the C182(T) is hard to beat, but the others will work
on most, if you know what you are doing.

Have a look at the Aviation Consumer USed Aircraft guide.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

As a glider driver I'm most intrigued by the Cirrus SR22 and Diamond
DA40. Glass slippers are cool.

No interest in dirt strips, but it will probably be necessary at some
point!

-tuno

In a previous article, Tuno said:
As a glider driver I'm most intrigued by the Cirrus SR22 and Diamond
DA40. Glass slippers are cool.

Don't know about the Cirrus, but the DA-40 has a useful load that sucks
compared to a Piper Archer or Dakota.

Again, you need to define your needs, and find a plane to meet it, rather
than saying "that plane looks cool".

--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
"But you've got to hand it to IBM, they know how to design hardware. The
servers all had handles to pick them up and throw them out of the
window...." --Juergen Nieveler in the Monastery

To answer your question specifically -
The most popular is the Cessna 172.
But you may want to move up -
In any case the answer are all Cessna,
unless you want to debate the comparitively recently introduced Cirrus
line. But then you open up a whole new ball of wax!!!

Tony
C-GICE



--

Tony Roberts
PP-ASEL
VFR OTT
Night
Cessna 172H C-GICE

In article .com,
Tuno wrote:

New to powered flight. It's a jungle out there.

Seeking the short list of the most popular 4-seat single engine
aircraft made in the last ~20 years. What are the best options?

(Used, fixed gear.)

::tuno

"tony roberts" wrote in message
...
To answer your question specifically -
The most popular is the Cessna 172.

The OP's "family of four" may today contain two small children, but at best
the 172 would be a temporary answer.

Vaughn