Gentlemen before you chew me up and toss me out a bit of background , a short story and a question. Having pulled wrenches for the last 30 years for two very specialized companies that ran 600 and 601s,also nearly losing my life in one and having lost great pilot friends in them. I have always searched these types of forums to convince those who have fallen for the appeal of the aerostar. I raise no subject that hasn't already been covered here or elsewhere but your viewpoints are all valid. We called the thing a Deathstar and more often much worse. Few of our top pilots with thousands of time on type cant state they never had a near death moment in one.
Yes some think its a Purdy airplane looks real fast but putting it side by side a 310 the 310th won hands down on all sides. The extra 15 minutes you gain to your desination is no comparison to the suitcases of money youll be bringing along to cover your maintain bills. And thats if you can find a skilled aerostar tech. My employeer says if we get one more aerostar to take care of we can start turning away work.
Having just rebuilt a customers aerostar that he had a significant incident with only a year after his purchase. He paid almost as much as his purchase for the repair.The aerostar club could not supply the required structural parts as advertised but rest assured there is an abundance of aerostar parts in the salvage market. Of course its never going to be New again. So why do young novice buyers searching for theyre first piston twin can't seem to get past the squirly aerostar and complain about its quirks and bills after they mishandled it. When ideally a much more relaxing controlable and afordable vintage twin just wasn't good enough.