Navajo or Baron-thoughts?

[svcta]

Hey all,
A friend is interested in purchasing an airplane. He is not a pilot, but wants to have access to an airplane that can be used for family trips and the occasional biz. travel (but mostly for personal use). We narrowed down on a B-58 in the first round of discussion, mainly because of the cabin (club seating and doors), and then he asked about having another seat or two and I got to thinking that a Navajo (-300) might be a suitable option. He's looking in the $150K range. Is there anything else that I'm overlooking?

I'm sort of bird-dogging the options for him and would love to get some info from any of you with experience with either or both airplanes of the airplanes above. Can any of you offer a quick and dirty pro/con list for these airplanes relative to each other?

Thanks a million!

 

[satpak77]

Baron

Parts, still in production, service centers, re-sale, etc etc.

 

[Downwind]

Baron is severely weight and cg limited with a very small cabin. Still in production with good support though.

The navajo is a lot bigger cabin with a lot better payload and is almost impossible to aft cg. A great flying airplane even though piper made it. 30+ year old airframes and mx could get expensive with the wrong one. Still good support though. TIO-540-J2BD is a good engine save for the mags but there is a fix for that. Would highly recommend a Coleman version.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[AC560]

A friend is interested in purchasing an airplane. He is not a pilot, but wants to have access to an airplane that can be used for family trips and the occasional biz. travel (but mostly for personal use)

Define occassional he might be much better off in a fractional or charter setting given he isn't a pilot.

If it was a choice between buying the two I of course would buy the Aerocommander. That not being an option the Baron is going to be a better choice for the reasons satpak77 stated. My uneducated two cents.

 

[svcta]

Thanks for the input so far!

My gang and I have owned commanders (520 and 560f) before, and while I adore them, they are just not easy to own any longer.

Re: the occasional biz travel, I mean not very often, the main thrust of the thing is personal travel, and fractional/charter is expensive, along with some other more minor considerations....and at the end of the day he wants to do this for the experience as much as anything.

Keep the opinions coming!

 

[340drvr]

................. He's looking in the $150K range. Is there anything else that I'm overlooking?
...............

I'm really not trying to be a smarta$$, but my first thought is, you've overlooked the other $50-100K that's really needed to buy into the twin game at a decent serviceable level (not counting those with timed-out engines).

 

[svcta]

I don't see that. There are a number of 70s model B58s available with mid-time or lower engines. The run out ones seem to fall in the low $100K range (or even lower--yikes). There is such a long age range of this model of airplane that there are a hundred different combinations of airframe age, time, engine time, paint, interior, avionics. So far it looks like there are very viable options for a Baron at this price range. I was never the biggest fan of a Navajo in this range, though they do seem to exist in the same way. I just don't know much about them personally, which is why I ask here on top of my 'street level' sources.

We've had an Aztec and Commanders, and I've got experience with 310s, all of which can be owned for well under $150K with great results. Sometimes well under $100K