I think the Islander is an awful a/c to fly. It's sole saving grace is its useful load out of a short strip. Otherwise it sucks.
* The worst nosewheel steering I've ever encountered. So heavy that I don't bother, & lead with differential power &/or brakes. Chieftans, C40x, etc have reasonable pedal forces on a similar weight a/c so there's no reason it couldn't have been done.
* Poor control harmony. Ailerons are very heavy with very slow roll rate. Yaw rate isn't the best either. Sometimes I've had to use rudder + differential power in the flare to get a sufficient yaw for the varying x-wind.
* Have to fight past the front seat passenger's knee to get to the trim (it's on the RH side of the quadrant). Meanwhile the friction knob is on the left & requires a 'backhanded' grasp to use. Very awkward. Why B&N didn't put them the same way as US a/c (trim on the left, friction on the right) is beyond me...
* Poorly designed sealing around the nosewheel linkages giving a blast of cold air. No fun when it's -10 or -15 outside.
* Noisy. Very.
* Cabin heat / demist can't be separately controlled.
* Wet compass is only accurate with cabin heat off and most avionics off. This for an IMC/known iceing a/c.
* Uses 'keyhole' seat attachment points instead of proper strip flooring. Makes it difficult to get a range of cargo attachment devices that fit. No sidewall attachments either. I'd also be very bloody surprised if the cargo area canvass could really stop 182 kg from collecting rows 5, 4, 3, 2 & 1 during an abrupt stop.
* Also to do with cargo: the heater outlets are all floor based, via a flat vent at each row. Not very good when carrying freight since you can't control it independently.
* Poor vis. due to the large control run cover. A pain in the @rse in a x-wind from the left.
* Carby air intakes that seem purpose designed to catch snow, ice etc. You have to stick your fingers in the <1" gap around the filter to clear it. Not even a drain hole (until the company added one... ) to let water out.
* Main wheel supporting structure easily damaged. There's a huge leverage from the wheels to the wings via the leg so it's easy to damage the attachment points & surrounds: Rear spar, upper & lower wing skins, flap mechanism etc
* Bloody near impossible to get into Row 2 & 3 without collecting some oil & grubbiness from the R. engine. At least that door & engine make it easy to climb onto the wing to dip the fuel & oil, unlike some other high wing a/c.
* What's with having to manually switch the starters into the electrical system you can engage them?
* Newer Islanders use a sequence of lights to indicate flaps running & their position. A great leap backwards from the earlier, easy to comprehend gauge. Ditto the newer Islander's 2" engine gauges from the earlier 3".
* Slooooow, but that's a fair trade off for its short field ability.
It's good points:
* Short field performance obviously. And with a hefty useful load ~1000 kg.
* Flat floor for freight (but see my earlier point re restraint attachments.
* Very easy instrument platform due to its stability. A bit too stable in the light of my earlier comments.
All in all the sooner I'm off them the better.