Thank you for all of the replies, it's been very helpful. I've elected to take Ian up on his offer and will be buying his AIS from his 360, which was originally supplied by Lancair.

I am sure the time will come when I need to call Michelle, though, so thanks for the info, Bob!

The timetable for obtaining the plane has been accelerated, it's being delivered on Monday to my local airport.  I haven't been able to sleep well for the past 3 nights...it's all quite exciting.  It's a 1992 small tail 360 with an O-360.  N360JH

The owner's CFI will be ferrying it from Kentucky to my home airport, Lincoln Park (N07). If the demo ride isn't a complete cluster, the deal will be sealed, and training will begin the very same day.  I have about 130 hours in DA-20's/40's (low wing with a stick), the remaining 170hrs are in...*deep breath* 172's.  Clearly this is a big step up, and I will take the training seriously, taking as long as is needed to become comfortable with the plane. My home strip has 2100ft and 2600ft available for landing (1 runway, displaced thresholds), so I know this will be somewhat tight.

If, after the training, I don't feel completely comfortable with that strip, I will house the plane at another nearby airport, 20 mins away (instead of N07, which is 3 mins from the house!).

I suppose it wouldn't be a bad idea to ask the list members for their opinions on basing a 'stock' 360 out of a 2100/2600/2900ft strip (rwy 1 ldg length, rwy 19 ldg length, 1/19 usable length for takeoff, respectively).  My original home airport was 2600ft (KSQL in northern california).

Thanks for the welcome. This looks like a high quality list.

Keith