Besides the repack and associated components, is there a particular year of the G2 that stands out?
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Newer the better all else being equal, but the changes aren’t very significant.
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Bill,
The vintage of the G2 matters less than the condition. Most of the features within the vintage can be upgraded with the exception of a few, but avionics, AP, AC etc. But get a poorly maintained and operated aircraft and you’ll blow your upgrade budget on fixes.
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Welcome Bill. Look forward to you joining COPA, some really knowledgeable folks here. What I did was spend a full full 6 months reading and learning on this site before I made my mind up on the year and model. You’ll see it a lot around here but it’s true, the “best $65 in aviation” is spent on one’s COPA membership. There are so many angles and facets about buying and owning these planes, and folks here will share with you their knowledge which will only help you make your choice. For me, buying my (second) plane was about learning from others about the “unknowns” that exist for me based upon my limited knowledge.
Good luck, and I look forward to reading about your purchase journey!
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I recently purchased a G2. In my opinion, there’s only one major airframe update that you’ll notice in the G2 line-- “non-glove box” vs “glove-box.” The change happened in 2006 at serial number 1662 and results in earlier models being non-glove box with an SIU and later models being glove box having a DAU.
The older models (serial number before 1662) have steam engine gauges on the panel for engine instruments, and the PFD does NOT display RPM, MP, FF, etc.
The other key items to consider are: TN, AC and TKS.
TN (turbo-normalization): depends on how/where you fly
AC (air-conditioning): Earlier G2s did not have factory AC, and some have aftermarket Keith installation. Mine has Keith, and it works well. Biggest tradeoff is weight, which is about 50 pounds (i think). Later model year G2s could have factory AC as an option.
TKS: Most have TKS, but some older models have a clean wing.
The next consideration would be Avionics. The items that will add value are:
Radios: Are the GNS 430s upgraded? If so, to what: GNS 430W, GTN 650, IFD 440s, etc.
Autopilot: The DFC-90 upgrade is a common upgrade from the original Stec-55.
Other upgrades: Flight Stream 510, ADSB In/Out with traffic/weather and Bluetooth, EMax (engine mgmt on the MFD), CMax (electronic charts on the MFD).
If you have more questions let me know–happy to chat about my experience buying a 2004 G2.
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Wonderful information Tyler thanks!
I have A/C as a must have. Kelly is electric and Keith is engine driven. I have heard it’s nice to have the Kelly blowing during preflight.
Any AD’s in the G2?
I would like to compare notes once I have another one to check out.
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Tyler pretty much read my mind. I had a G2 S/N 1388. She is an awesome bird. (Recently sold her and upgraded to a P210.) I sometimes wished I had the glovebox model (for the additional data on the MFD and the fan), but in reality, that was pretty minor. EMax and CMax are pretty important in my mind. TKS and AC? Depends on your location and mission. DFC is a major upgrade and well worth it.
Even though I sold my Cirrus I keep an eye on the market. I think your bigger issue right now is finding a nice bird for sale! Seems like the market for G2’s is red hot.
Good luck.
You can have the best of both worlds Don, by getting a G2 with the analog engine instruments and then add EMAX Plus. I like having the steam gauges, because they’re a good backup. EMAX Plus adds the DAU extra data blocks on the MFD (and even more to the PFD) to a SIU equipped plane.
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Or use Clyde’s BlueMax at a fraction of the cost and display it on your phone/pad.
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I have a 2006 G2. No A/C but full of upgrades. If you want to chat, drop me a DM.
Welcome
How does that work with ForeFlight? Do you need to switch back and forth to a separate app or use a separate device?
Not having the engine block on the other MFD pages is annoying indeed, especially on approach when I’m using chart view for distance steps.
Re the OP’s question I’d add that the best G2 is one with the terrible aileron rudder interconnect removed. Luckily that is very cheap to do.
If you search for other posts, you’ll see what this looks like. With modern iOS, you can multi-task both ForeFlight and the BlueMax app on the same screen. You can shrink the BlueMax app to 33% of the screen, and still get the engine data alongside a substantial amount of ForeFlight on the rest of the screen.
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Don, Hmmmm…
Huh?
The analog gauges update real-time while the digital ones are sampled at a insufficient rate which makes me always look at the analog ones during the take off run and I think it is a big plus with early g2s
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Personally I happen to like the look of the backup gauges vs the big hole in the dash.
I would like the upgraded DIU vs the SIU which seems more reliable however.
Read the Jaimie Steele link above which is one of the best description of the generations.
Eric (early G-2)
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You sure about that? The MFD records it’s data every 6 seconds, but what it actually displays seems pretty real time to me.
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I’m sure of it. I set RPM and FF via the gauges only. The digital readouts are just too slow. I’ll fine-tune with the digitals, though. I haven’t seen how fast BlueMax is, yet. I just got it installed week before last.
I think it reads like 10x a second or something amazing like that.
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