[quote=Tiger 77
Sailing,
Any tips on flying the aircraft?
Cheers,
Tiger.[/quote]
Tiger, it flies very much like the 207, but when landing you have to flare just a touch higher as due to the extra length the gear is lower relative to the pilot seat in the landing attitude. The other trick is to flare slightly earlier, due to the control lag. This is caused by stretch due the length of the control cables, which delays elevator response by a fraction of a second, but you soon get used to it.
Of course, as in all older Cessnas, you have to make sure that the seat detents are fully engaged in the track. On the early 209s, the tracks were in one piece right through the cabin and this was the cause of the fuel truck accident mentioned by Dry Twotter. The pilot was just opening the throttle when the nosewheel hit a bump, and the throttle jerked forward. The acceleration caused the seat to slide back down the tracks into the rear of the cabin(there were no rear seats due skydive ops). It fell off the tracks and as it tipped over, the pilot disappeared into the tailcone headfirst, strapped to the seat. The aircaft, still accelerating, impacted the fuel truck in an extreme nose high attitude and suffered damage to the fuselage skin (apparent in the photos). What no-one had realised was that one of the anacondas (see my previous post) had been pregnant and had given birth during the flight from Ecuador a few days before. The babies had been hibernating under the floor and were thrown out and into the cab of the truck, causing Dwayne extreme distress.
cheers, Sailing.