Climb, descent and lower altitude flying factored in. Cruise TAS was about 200 at altitude (my plane) but I found FL250 to be uncomfortable O2 wise and climb performance was really bad at altitude so I did not go there often. I usually flew FL180 to FL220 on longer trips where cruise TAS was 190ish. For the same reason(s) I put a lower than cruise average speed for the TBM (250). My cruise TAS in the TBM is about 290.

Seems a little slowish for the Mirage.... But I see that you listed on your info as maybe a Malibu... In my Mirage I hit 200 KTAS at FL180 and added 2ish knots for every 1000 ft. above 18,000, so FL220 would be 208 KTAS. Just so there is not confusion, not for you, but the way the thread reads. Filed speed should be the speed of your filed cruising altitude.

Nope that was a Mirage. I sold it but still have a Malibu. I never got book speeds in my Mirage. It was a 98. Maybe newer ones are faster.

Landed in Anchorage on my North America trek. The TBM rocks !

Awesome views.

That's one heck of a tour there Marc! Are you conducting business on that trip or pleasure cruising? I love to fly but that's a LOT of flying.

Simcom training in Scottsdale and business conference in Yellowknife.
The rest is personal trip. Easy peasy in the TBM.

Well done Marc! Beautiful shots. AK is on the bucket list for me.

sweet Marc! All that flying and under 1100 gallons....of cheaper Jet fuel.

Thanks for the info. Just curious, what about parts and repair labor? Is that built into your annual? Any reserve for prop?

The TBM is a time traveller.

Left Anchorage yesterday at 0800 AKtime, landed home near Ottawa at 10pm EDT.

1540 nm Panc Anchorage - CYXE Saskatoon 4.4 @ FL310 consuming 232 gal.
1344 nm CYXE - CMB7 Maxville 4.5 @ FL270 consuming 228 gal.

Met a CF18 squadron of 5 in Saskatoon that left Fairbanks just before me and heading to Bagotville in Quebec.

They did the flight in 3.3 with air to air refuelling will burning 6000 ibs per hr.

They couldnt believe it when I told them i did the flight nonstop from Anchorage in 4.4 will burning 360 ibs per hr.

I left about 10 min before them and I still heard them on center for 1/2 the flight.
They were meeting the same tanker plane over The PAS, SK for air refuelling.
Im pretty sure they didnt take any fuel on the ground in Saskatoon.

Thanks for the info. Just curious, what about parts and repair labor? Is that built into your annual? Any reserve for prop?

No kidding! In the last thirty days I’ve been to Wisconsin and back, Toronto, LA twice, San Francisco, and headed to PA next week. Over 8k miles in a month easily, fast and far less stress than the airlines. Hauled an enormous amount of stuff taking son back
To college on the bargain. It’s a fast sports/Ute of the aky!

I've just finished 3 years of ownership of my TBM 850 and we've put 670 flight hours on the plane in that time. When I moved from a Cirrus 22T, which is a fabulous 500 mile airplane, I expected that our trip lengths would increase and the annual mileage flown would go up about 25% and that's about what has happened.

We're based in the middle of the country and the longest trip we make is from OKC to Boston which is about 1300 miles. I made that trip back and forth again this week. It requires a stop coming back home and while non stop going east is doable I stop anyway just to be fresh going into Boston airspace. We routinely make trips to LA which is about 1100 miles and that's an easy nonstop coming home and doable nonstop going west some of the time. Chicago is another frequent destination and what was a long flight in the Cirrus is now quick and easy.

With RVSM we're above the weather most of the time which is a good thing. Being in the clouds, forced to have the separator deployed and slowing to 250 knots is frustrating. Funny how your perspective changes.

The TBM is an a very flexible aircraft. It allows us to get employees out and back from agencies in our operating territory in one day where a car would take three. It allows us to bring prospects to our office and close them where we might miss opportunities if we asked them to drive. It's a great sizzle on the steak. We can load up executives and get places quickly to take advantage of opportunities that the Cirrus, or Bonanza before it, couldn't handle. About once a year I wish we had more seats but it's not enough to slow down to another SE turboprop the rest of the time. I can only think of three short trips where all the seats were filled.

We're expanding our business into California and I've bought a place in Santa Cruz. KWVI is 1176 NM from OKC and the TBM isn't the best tool for that flight routinely as it's a long day going at least. But none of the light(er) jets can do that trip non stop west either. It would take a CJ2 at least. From SC it's no more than 30 minutes to anywhere I need to go in California in the TBM. A jet seems like a bit of overkill. I expect our annual miles/hours of utilization to keep going up.

I talked with another TBM owner at OSH this summer who flies a 910 and Daher was working on him to buy a 940. I thought about what it would take to get me to buy a newer plane and it's not avionics. I really like the set up I have. What I'd love is 34-35k foot operating altitude. That would finish off the clouds just about all the time. Otherwise, my 12 year old airplane is fantastic.

It hasn't been a "cheap" ownership experience. There are expensive things to do at the 10 year mark. And when something breaks the parts costs can be eye watering. I'm still looking for what I now think of as the "mythical" 25k annual. But all in operating costs have been about what I was told to expect.

It would be awesome to have the flexibility that Mark H. has to fly a variety of jets depending on the mission and with no capital sunk into them. But if I have to fly just one airplane I think I've been pretty lucky with my choice.