I agree with BHopper88. It's an easy plane to fly (my experience is DA 20's, 40's warriors, cherokee, arrows, 172, 182 and 210's) I remember doing climbs at about 150 FPM in winter at 10,000 with two people and full tanks. I'de look into reliability tho, because the flight school I was at had 3 grounded at different times for issues due to head gaskets (it's water cooled for those unfamiliar) leaking, and other TAE issues. The plane is great for situational awareness, but for someone who might not transition to a glass JOB after training in that particular plane, I would opt for something with a six pack. I guess I say that in the sense of what future IFR would be used. The performance is pretty good. We flew APV to PVU on one fill up and had about a hours flight left. Got to fly over the Hoover dam too! :-)