Finally got around to editing some video from the C195 trip. Its not great video because I wasn't very focussed on videoing and the 195 is a little short of places to mount a video. I took so long because I am slack and not very clever with the editing software so every time I edit a vid is like the first time. A flatlined learning curve.
JTM is a 1952 model C195 fitted with a Jacobs 330hp L6MB engine swinging a Hamilton Standard CS prop. It develops that 330hp at 26/2250 so you don't just shove the throttle all the way in on takeoff 'cause you will REALLY over boost the engine. The nice part of that is that it can maintain 300hp (24/2100) up to about 8000' - its sorta like a poor mans turbo. Normal cruise is 21/1900 and that gives around 136KTAS/60 liters/hr. It can go faster but the FF goes faster too. You could probably get 145KTAS if you put the spurs to her at altitude but the FF would be horrendous. She holds just over 300 Litres so has fair legs. The fuel system is simplicity itself with a OFF/LEFT/BOTH/RIGHT selector on the left sidewall.
Starting the engine is pretty easy if somewhat more complicated than a modern flat engine. The Jacobs is unusual in that it has a coil (probably out of a 1938 Ford) instead of a left mag. The key is marked Off, Start, Mag. Both. The engine is started with the prop in full coarse, mixture idle cutoff and the throttle cracked the usual amount.
During the preflight you pull the prop through 14 blades to check for hydraulic lock and to get some oil up into the top cylinders. I have read people suggest 5 blades is enough and I have read 10 blades is enough. I figure with a 4 stroke cycle 2 blades/cylinder covers all bases. The rest of the walk around is utterly unremarkable.
Entering the aircraft is via a single door adjacent to the rear bench seat on the starboard side and as you open it a chrome step folds down out of the belly (very cool). Recessed in the rear door jam is a button that opens the baggage door (very cool) but the actual baggage compartment is a little on the small side - surprisingly. Clambering up between the front seats you slide into the left seat and, once seated, its a VERY roomy office - gotta be 6-8 inches more elbow room than a Bonanza, easily. There is a window winder for opening the small window on the left (very cool). The windscreen goes back over your head...good vis in a turn....wear a hat.
There is a row of chrome 'piano key' switches either side of the throttle - left to right is Battery Master/Radio master/pitot heat/forgot --- Flaps/beacon/left landing light/right landing light.
Throttle set, prop coarse, mixture idle cut off, carby heat cold - 5 or 6 shots of prime cold, 3 or 4 hot - the primer has a HUGE stroke. Master on, left index finger on the starter button and count 7 blades. Right hand selects 'Start' and when she rumbles into life mixture rich then select 'BOTH'. Check oil pressure and when everything stable full fine on the prop.
Then sit back and wait - no more than 1000 RPM until you have warmed her up - 100F on the CHT.
She is easy to taxi but very blind - it was great having FTDK in the right seat to stop me taxiing into stuff...like buildings.
The run ups etc are unremarkable. The controls are like a Twin Otter with a large Y arrangement coming out of the floor - all the trims are at the top of the vertical part of the column. Its actually a very ergonomic cockpit - much nicer than C180/185s - everything falls to hand beautifully.
Takeoff is a real event - awesome sound and that big radial drags her into the air in no distance at all...I would think 400 metres tops. JTM also climbs VERY well - you'd easily average 1000'/min to any typical cruising altitude.
Flying wise it flies nicely enough - the only
slightly discordant note is you have to fly it ALL the time. She cannot be trimmed out hands off in pitch. Without constant attention from the pilot she will gently wander up and down several hundred feet/minute - you actually see this in the vid when I fck around with stuff. The 195 would be very tiring to fly IFR without an autopilot. No autopilot in JTM but she is VFR only.
Basically she burbles along like a single engined DC3...which is VERY cool.
Landing wise its typical large Cessna taildragger - and she is certainly LARGE - except for the flaps. The flaps are useless but the 195 has LOTS of wing and will happily land slow and stop quick - if off a flatter approach than your typical C180/185 pilot is used to. I did a really nice tail low wheeler at Aldinga on grass into about 15kts from slightly right of the nose and was very impressed with how quick she stopped.
Tim reckons its easier to land than a C185 but I am not sure I see much difference. One of the other C195 owners at YECH used to own a Harvard and reckons the Harvard is easier to land.
Basically she is just a lovely old girl who will constantly challenge you just enough to make you know you're alive. C195s have a bit of a bad ground loop history but I bet that is mostly in latter years. The pilots of the 1940s/50s would have felt utterly at home and at ease in the C195 - they didn't need much of a view straight ahead and were used to big/heavy/directionally unstable aircraft - not so modern pilots trained in utterly stable nose draggers.
Here is a link to a pic taken by one of the spotters at YECH as I taxied in after arriving back from Essendon with a VERY jetlagged Tim/Jen.
What classic lines. The first Cessna designed post WW2 and the last aircraft certified with a radial engine in the US.
Aircraft VH-JTM (1952 Cessna 195 Businessliner C/N 7752) Photo by Nick Dean (Photo ID: AC592229)