During my primary flight training, I hung out a lot at the local airport, getting to know the pilots and their airplanes. One guy in particular, we’ll call him “Tom,” stood out; he was a family friend and employed by a local company to fly his boss around in a Piper Twin Comanche.
One day I showed up at the pilot lounge and another local pilot asked, “Hey, did you hear about Tom?” Fearing bad news, I allowed that I hadn’t.
“They lost all their electrics one night last week, going into Miami in the Twinkie,” the friend said.
“Wow. What did they do?” I asked.
“Bought a Baron.”
That’s typical of an uninformed owner. In addition to new avionics he’ll be getting bigger maintenance and fuel bills. I love the Twinkie. I always thought of mine as a Twin Mooney. Just sips the fuel.
Different strokes for different folks.
Nothing wrong with a twin comanche, nothing wrong with a baron either.
There are iterations of a Beech Baron, but one difference is clear, and that is the maintenance cost is way higher than a Twin Comanche. I find the Barons just arduous to work on. Definitely not built with mechanics in mind. The Twin Comanche is a great fling aircraft and has few repeat ADs.