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Two
other considerations in the equation:
Purchase Price (if you are buying used). A bare bones 320 is
frequently the best bang-for-the-buck out there if you are willing to upgrade
the panel yourself. I'm just about ready for first flight in an 18
year-old 320 newly equipped with a Dynon D-180; Garmin GNS 480 (handy on the
East Coast when they quickly assign you airways); Garmin 496 with XM Wx; TFRs;
Terrain as backup nav; and a TruTrack Digiflight II VSGV. Total cost after
adding all of these and selling some of the old stuff was far less than a 360
with less-than-current IFR equipment, and doing the replacement gave me much
better confidence that everything "under the dash" is in top-notch
condition.
Fly
Higher. The Lancair 235 is a really nice plane if you are small (I am, and
my last plane was a 235) but the climb is rather pathetic with a 2-blade fixed
pitch prop and it poops out too low fully loaded. A Mountain High O2
system for two people in either a 320 or 360 lets you climb comfortably anywhere
under the flight levels, so git 'er on up! Then back off the power to that
best range speed. Again the 360 may have a slight advantage here in the
climb, although my high-compression 320 reportedly makes 170hp so it can't be
that much different.
Cheers,
Bill
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