Originally Posted by
Ascend Charlie
Shaped like a fish, slipped through the air easily, 145 kt cruise without a whimper, 168 kt if you pushed it.
A bit like an Italian sports car, though. With 2 up, it carried full fuel. With 6 or 7 on board, lucky to get 45 minutes out of it before needing another small sip. And if the extra tank was full, having 2 on board meant they were the skinny ones - at least it was that way on our rather heavy Mk 2 Plus (pictured further up wheels-up...). Those cast-iron gyros and autopilot were heavy. If we had the glass screens and modern gear of today it would be 90kg lighter.
The original A109A and A II with C20s was seriously under-powered, comparison with later (E onward) models is chalk and cheese. Plus that over-engineered cantilever undercarriage taking up weight and space was a disaster: especially when the pax tapped you on the shoulder 10 minutes after departing Buller and asking when you intended to bring in the airbrakes?
Ascend Charlie maybe you can give the full story behind the wheels up in my previous photo?