To twin? Or not to twin... and the future of 7425P

[criffus]

Hi all,
As I've shared with a few ICS members, I had a rather unfortunate experience the last weekend in October.
While flying back to Oklahoma from Northwest Florida, I had an engine-out in flight. I'm not writing this from the hospital, or with a neck-brace, or "from beyond", so it's good to say that things turned out as good as I could have hoped for.
I'm not going to take up 2000 words of ICS forum space and dump the whole experience on you here. If you are so inclined, you can read all about it at
I hope to blog there further on the repair process as well as the now delayed (and logistically hosed) firewall-forward refurb of 25P. Including the new engine etc. (There's a pic there of the engine after landing...)

In the meantime, I wanted to share with you all my new dilemma about what I should do with 25P, and whether my urge to look at twins is something I'll "get over". Of course, I don't expect anyone to dictate what I ultimately decide is safe and necessary for my me and my family's flying needs, but as always, I appreciate others' insights and experiences.

Naturally, I'm asking myself the question: "Should I have bought a twin?" And now I'm asking: "How the heck can I walk away from my investment in my single in order to facilitate such an acquisition if it becomes necessary?"
Like many of you, I'm "way-upside-down" on my airplane. If I ran my business like I manage my airplane (on the ground!) I'd be ruined!

What influenced some of you twin-owners to go with a twin?

My flying, as I've probably babbled about elsewhere in this forum, is typically 2-6 hour flights from southwest Oklahoma to New Mexico, Florida, Michigan, and even farther a few times a year. (Halifax, Nova Scotia being my longest journey yet) I fly year-round and do a good bit of flying out west in the mountains. (within reason of course, with my carburetor/non-turbo 250!) My family, which is wife and 6 yr old child, are with me often. And I sometimes have the need/want to carry bulky items cross-country.

Yes, I've been at this cross-roads before. But it's difficult when you have a personality like mine (no comments please!) to always recognize whether you are in "want" or actually in "need" of something different. I'm a gadget-freak and seem to always have a yearning for "what the next thing" will be. I have bought an avionics-suite that makes many drool. Did I really need it? After 500 hours of flying now, I can say that I could probably live without some of it. Do I still like it? Oh yeah. My workload when I'm single-pilot IFR is quite manageable, and I like it that way!

But with my recent experience comes new knowledge that "yeah!" this could definitely happen to you! It did! And the risk-factor has a new look to me. Like I said, maybe I'll just manage it and move forward with what I have. Considering all the options though is a due-diligence I can hardly skip over now.

I look forward to hearing any of your comments and insights here.

Oh! and anybody who knows where I might find an O-540 that I can use as a core- please see my post in the "Wanted to Buy" section of the ICS forum!

Thanks all,
Chris Riffle
N7425P@KAXS (well, KGPT for the time-being!)

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[criffus]

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