New member looking for information on Tecnam Bravo

[HPL]

Hello,
I am glad that I found this forum while searching for information on LSA.

My husband Rick and I have been flying for 10 years, each with around 900 hrs mostly in our Cardinal C177B. The strutless Cardinal was perfect for our photography/videography hobby. It cruised at around 120kt which allowed us to make somewhat frequent trips between NY and MI to visit my parents in 4-6hrs.

With my father passed away and my mother moved to CT, a nearby state, most of our fllights are now local : going up and down the Hudson river for photography, practicing instrument approaches and refreshing our commerical maneuvers etc. In reviewing our flight missions, interests, the cost of flying and maintaining the Cardinal, we thought that a LSA like the Tecnam Bravo would be a better aircraft to own.

We got our instrument ratings six years ago after a tense long cross country trip from MN to IL then to MI and NY. The ceiling got lower and lower and it was not fun flying at 1200-1400' watching for hills with cell towers. We have greatly appreciated the utility of the ratings eventhough we rarely flew hard IMC. Since we would like to maintain the option of instrument flying, this narrows our LSA choice to only a few planes. From what I have read, the Tecnam Bravo can be IFR equippped jus like the Tecnam Sierra.

I did a search on the FAA database and only found one registered Bravo in Minnesota. Google searches showed several Bravo for sale and one being used at a Flight school in Texas.

I would appreciate learning about your experience transitioning to LSA, flying/owning Tecnam planes and pointers to FBO/Flight schools in the Northeast where we could check out a Bravo or any Tecnam high wings planes.

Thank you in advance.

Hai Longworth
CP-ASEL-IR