I still don't get the opposition to the Nomad. I only had 650 hours on an N22 but I always found it to be very reliable and a fantastic performer (after takeoff, from a 800 foot strip and at max gross, I often found I had to push the throttles forward to make climb power).
I did not like the noise, the prop vibration in the cockpit and the proximity of the prop blades to my head (but the N24 was better for this I was told).
I hardly ever had a defect on the airframe and we flew an airline schedule with it day after day and rarely cancelled for mechanical problems. We flew it on 3 hour flights between islands well before ETOPS was thought up, and the passengers loved it. I particuarly liked the way I could take off from a 2000 foot strip on one side of an island with a 6000 foot mountain on it, and fly directly over the top of the mountain to an 800 foot strip on the other side without having to circle to gain altitude or dive at max speed to get down on the other, even the rate of descent was acceptable to passenger ears. The Islander had to fly the long way, around the mountain.
Yet I read on these forums nasty criticism, mostly from people who have never flown it, and it all seems wrong to me, not based in fact at all, but ignorant crap thrown out by the typical Aussie knocker who excells in destroying what his own country produces.
Aus has, and can, make the best products in the world, can, and has, got the best productivity, is innovative and inventive and could be, and has been, a world leader in technology. But you would never know that if you read what the typical Aussie has to say.
I live in the US, and the Americans are the opposite. They believe everything good that their government or industry tells them, and nothing of the bad. Maybe the rah rah rah attitude is impractical and ultimately destructive, but it is easier to take than the gloom and doom Aussie attitude.