Well.......I guess I own TBM700AQ! Started training yesterday. Wow...........awful lot to learn. Had ground school all day today. Hopefully flying back to KIKK tomorrow evening. Walt Adair from TSI has been amazing. He will be flying back with us to Illinois and we will continue training. Terry Winson and his staff from AVEX avaition in Camarillo California has been superb throughout this entire ordeal. Flew yesterday and did some air work and a couple approaches. With my (extremely) limited knowledge ...............really seems to handle like the Bonanza. Feels a little heavier on the controls but very responsive. Takes off like a rocket! Landings have been ok........gotta get the sight picture down. Comes across the numbers at 85 knots.

I know ......I know. "No pictures and it didn't happen". I will download the pictures when I get home. I will post as I "fumble" my way into the world of Jet A!

Wow Michael congrats! I'm considering a C2 when I sell the KA. I'm not so sure I'll fit so I'm hoping to find one to sit in.

Congratulations Mike!! That is one nice plane. Enjoy!!

Wow! Congrats! And don't forget to have fun while you are drinking from the fire hose....

Nice step up enjoy. TBM hard value to beat for turboprop .

Congrats Michael on the TBM700! You're going to love this SE/TP and its capabilities

Thanks to everyone. Finishing up a few minor maintenance things this am and hopefully on our way. We put in dual 750's and a G600. Some similarity to the G1000 but still lots of new buttons to learn!

John...........yea... I'm not a little guy and it's a bit of a dance to get in the cockpit. We have the pilot door so that helps considerably. Once in the seat I find things very comfortable. Once at our home base we will most likely fly with the pilots side aft seat out of the airplane, that will help as well.

Enjoy Michael! You will love the capability and performance.

That's a lot of airplane.

Michael,

now is the time to upgrade your profile with a picture of this Tarbes-born flying machine!!

Congrats on the C2! I got a 700B operational April 1 after my 340 got wrecked on the ground last fall. Don't bring up the letters "AIG" but that's a different story. I already have 100 hours in it and starting to feel comfortable. I'm surprised I didn't hear SimCom in your training scenario. Perhaps your insurance is allowing "in aircraft" training without an initial course as I think that was a option for me as well. I chose to do both as I was required 10 hours of "mentor" time anyway. I've been to SimCom before and both are great experiences and will probably continue with both programs going forward.

I'm 6'2", 205 and the TBM is comfortable for me and actually easier to get situated in compared to the 340 I came from. My only complaint is my butt gets sore after a couple hours but I think it's because my interior is original and the seat cushion is old/squished.

I've already realized after my transition from B36TC to the 340 that I have no interest going back to piston, especially legacy twins, and once you fly a turbine it spoils you for all else. I'll also bet that's what a Jet guy says about turbo props.

The TBM is amazingly efficient. You'll be very happy in it.

Nice going!

I trained with Walt in my TBM - great guy. Tell him hello for me - John Shelk. How did you like the torque roll when he got the plane slow and then pushed high power in? The first time he did it to me, I tried to catch the roll with the ailerons and Walt had to catch it with the rudder. next time, I did much better.

Wish I still had the TBM, but time marches on and I really enjoy the Bonanza.

Well done Michael, trust she brings you much joy.
At 6'4 and not so young I found the TBM easier to get into than a Pilatus and certainly much easier than a Meridian. Cockpit maybe a little bit cramped but it seems aircraft are designed around passengers and never around pilots. The cockpit is certainly not worse than comparable aircraft.

Congrats Michael, you will like the TBM.

As for the torque roll, mine wont do it. We tried numerous times with John Elford.

Waltz been great. We just arrived home at KIKK. Couple squawks still need some work. In reality.........haven't done a lot of "training". Flew to Oregon from Camarillo tues to do the closing. They worked all day on squawks all day Weds. Thurs morning still had to finish up on some minor stuff. It was late enough we decided to head back to KIKK. During run up back headsets weren't working?!? Back to hangar. They ended up having to reboot the avionics on the new GTN 750's. Finally out of Camarillo around 12:30pm. We get about 1:5 hours out and get tremendous static in all the headsets. We stop at our scheduled fuel stop KPUB. Looks like a couple static wicks are shot?!? They do not have replacement wick in KPUB. Fly on to KIKK fighting the radio. It was safe but annoying. Lots of pop up thunderstorms that gave me a chance to work with the radar and NEXRAD. In the am off to Muncie aviation to hopefully fix the static.

A little frustrating but still a great day. Hopefully it's as simple as the wicks?!? I'll get some pictures posted tomorrow.

In spite of the maintenance challenges we did see a ground speed of 352knots!!!!!