PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Cessna 210 or not. I need six seats
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Old 28th Apr 2004, 11:04
  #18 (permalink)  
dirkdj
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Belgium
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Having owned a PA32 (4 years) previously and still owning a BE36 (31 years and 4000 hours) I feel qualified to comment.

The BE36 is one of the nicest handling GA airframes around, first hours after the PA32 were quite a shock in the positive sense. Visibility is unequalled. Parts are expensive but very few are needed. I have not bought a Beech part in the last 5 years that I remember. Weight and balance is not a problem on the BE36, the fuselage was moved forward 10 inches compared to the V35, this solved the aft CG problem if loaded from front to back (put the lightest persons in the rear seats)

Every type has its character, if you want to move 6 full size adults all the time with plenty of luggage, you better get something like a Cessna Caravan. A BE36 should be considered as a sports car rather than a truck like the PA32. The 210 probably fits in between these two but I have never flown a 210.

My BE36 spent most of its life with the last two seats in the hangar, some of the time with the middle seats removed as well. I carried around an enormous amount of equipment up to 6ft 19" racks with electronic equipment, a Clark forklift was needed to load it. The double door in the back really helps.

Try putting your 90 year-old grandmother in the rear seats of the C210.


On a recent trip to Waterford, Ireland, we were six POB, all adults, two of them more than full size males. 210 litres of fuel, LOP operation at 24"/2200 RPM, battling a 45 KT headwind, through a cold front over the south coast of England, landed with more than one hour reserve. Only the overnight luggage was on board, the rest was sent by UPS to the hotel. Worked perfectly.


The BE36 is also one of the most 'extensible' airframes around.

Example: my hangarmate has an identical BE36, end of June he will be installing an IO550 engine to replace his current IO520, adding a turbo-normalizer to give additional altitude and speed range, installing an 110CuFt O2 bottle behind the rear bulkhead, will get approval for gross weight increase from 3600 to 4000lbs making it a full six-seater with almost full fuel. This plane will cruise at about 200kts in the low teens. He will gain 10000ft of operating altitude and more than 30 Kts of speed.

As always, there are several articles in aviationconsumer dot com about six-seaters, comparing the strengths and weaknesses of each. A subsciption is money well spent when looking at major investments.
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