And I totally respect your opinion.
I am definitely not a Cessna salesman, and I resent being called that.
I too prefer the Airvan to the C206. By a long way. And I have made that very clear.
All I have asked for is a few improvements to make a good plane, a great plane.
A bit more HP, a rudder trim, seat covers that are easier to take on and off (We had factory GA covers, not OEM), better brakes and better glue.
I feel it was under-powered for our operations in Botswana. Have you flown there?
Most of the time it was at or slightly over (Due to standard weights being used) MTOW with DH of around 7-8k.
With constant light to moderate turbulence all the way up to, and sometimes above 10,000ft MSL, A slightly bigger donk could have made the difference between sitting in it, and sitting above it.
We could not operate the turbo charged engines as a lot of our legs were 5 to 10 minute hops. Some as short as 2 minutes.
@GA10. Did they find a solution to the prop surging issues that they were having with those 3 bladed props? I'm guessing it was a CSU issue and obviously not a Gippsland issue.
Did Gippsland not come across this issue in testing though? Is it just unique to the new airvans in Botswana?