Originally Posted by
Big Pistons Forever
140-144 kts.....only if you have a 10 to 15 kt tailwind
Personally when ATC asked for a groundspeed, I always told them “Mach point one five”
I would’ve enjoyed my Islander flying more if it wasn’t for three things:
1. Someone had figured out that flying it at 105 knots gave us an extra ~50 track miles.
2. It was flown at 500’ in ISA+15-20 temps. This plus point 1 meant it was always wallowing around with its nose pointing skyward.
3. There was a far more civilized Shrike Commander available to do the same taskings in.
Our Islanders did have a nice air data / fuel flow system that integrated with the KLN90 GPS and allowed for me to easily and accurately advise ATC of our cruising Mach number of M0.17.
Edit: I don’t think I’ve kept any manuals, but I’ll have a look around.