Its a flash one bloke!
The Cessna 210 - Tips and tricks:
Always check hydraulic fluid in your pre-flight, if there is none you won’t be able to get the gear down with even a manual gear extension.
The one green light for the gear shows the status of only the nose wheel. Amber up, green down and locked.
Make sure after take-off the gear motor does not continue to run, it may well catch fire by overheating. If this happens pull the circuit breaker, but remember to reset before landing and visually confirm the mains are down.
You may hear the gear pressurize in cruise occasionally, this is normal.
With full fuel, you will almost certainly see it dripping from the overboard vents on the wingtips when taxiing = normal.
Climb at 110-120 kts 25”, 2500RPM, fuel flow top of the green. Crz 23” or full throttle 2400RPM and fuel flow 90 lbs per hour, Descent no more than 23”, then decrease by 1” per minute to arrive in the circuit at approx 20”. Best ROC 97, Best Angle 72, X wind 21. Downwind 120kts gear down, flaps 10 approx 20”, base 85-90kts, flap 20, approx 17”, final 80-85kts, flap 30, approx 15”. Vref 75-80, 72 short field.
Should be indicating about 160 in descent from 7-9 grand. May require a few miles to level out in a M/L model as first flap is 150 kts and gear 140. N model is 165 for both. Plan your descent and treat it like it is turbocharged. The 300hp donk will thank you.
Hauls quite a load, load heaviest in the front to lightest in the back. With an aft C of G it will be quite “pitchy”. Watch for a bit of a porpousing motion after take-off when “right on max take-off weight” with a rear c of g. In this situation use a “central” climb elevator position and trim to control pitch – Definitely not in a flying manual, but it works well.
In Summer and hot thermal conditions, you may want to select a stage of flaps and/or the gear down at top of descent. This will give a much smoother ride on descent and will stop the whole airframe flexing (no wing spar except for G model) in turbulence.
8-9 Quarts of oil is good. 10 will decorate the cowl with stains.
Centre zero ammeter. Watch for alternator failures!!! During the run-up, turn on the landing and taxi lights and check the needle, flicks back a fraction but holds the load to confirm normal operation. If the alternator has failed, these lights will show quite a significant discharge. Also during the run-up, depress the green gear light to confirm the gear warning horn is functioning correctly.
Also during a run-up one-day, turn the master and alternator off. The gauges you are left with is all you will have if you have an alternator failure and run the battery flat. Very important if you are flying in marginal VMC in the NT wet season for instance. You will have no radio, navaids, XPDR, Fuel Gauges, Oil temp etc and No AUX FUEL PUMP! Oil Pressure and Fuel Flow will still work.
A quick visit to the ATSB website will show more 210 accidents than you can poke a stick at – Have a good read. Remember to be sensible, don’t do beat-ups, stall turns or arrive in the circuit at 170kts etc etc. It’s a great aircraft and the foundation of most GA pilots charter career. Enjoy.