nasa. It may not be pressurised but with Bongo Vans (and Tri-Bongo Vans) worth about 8 cents per kilogram, you could get a whole fleet for your budget!:D :D :D

Re bongo vans... bullworker ailerons, 120kt cruise, engines always going out of sync............
Just over 800hrs in the flamin' things and a 20% hearing loss in both ears because of that:( :(
Oh yes, and 3.5 hrs ICUS in the tri bongo van.........!
And I would'nt have missed it for the world!!!!!!!:D :D :D

wots needed is an old C172 with a dirty big ACME rocket straped to the tail.

Hell!, that'll take u places!!! :cool: :D

Ok both planes have the good and the bad

have only riden in a 404, so lack experience in that machine, i have about 300hrs on chieftains and hate to say it but the 404 wins hands down.

one of pipers aircraft (although not designed by piper) that i love is the aerostar, fast highly manouverable and a dream to fly once you are used to it, leaves the 310 for dead, apart from loading and unloading.

and to finnish it off i have just started on a 208, it is better than any piper i have flown (no i havent flown the meridian) it is a bit slow but it carrys a s**t load great endurance, goes to fl180 with no hassel at all (Oxy mask does get annoying) for a 100pph reduction in fuel flow and only a 9ktas reduction in speed. the one i am flying has wx radar, de-ice, radar Alt, GNS 530 and 430 gps/nav/com's coupled to a kfc225 autopilot, it is the quitest aircraft i have ever flown (you can hold a normal conversation with headsets removed without raising your voice) the bleed air heater rocks, it is so smooth and the best thing it is simple to start, none of this throttle quadrant ballet.

what can i say i am inlove with the 208 (just wish they would pull the pod off so i could beat those pigeons home):D :) :p

Aparently the pod doesn't make all that much difference to the speed, maybe 3-4 kts..... Then again, I've never flown one, just spoken to those that have.

I'll stick to my 210 thanks, but the one I've got now is 7 kts slower than the last....... Buggah! Oh well. ;)

429CRJ

7 Kts that's a lot.??? same model ??

The pod on the Caravan accounts for about 9 knots at higher power settings and 7 knots at lower power settings.

The slight reduction in cruise speed (about 5%) is offset by the versatility of the aircraft with pod fitted. It provides four separate cargo holds (Grand) permitting a bay for each landing point on operations up to four sectors. Also reduces the height to physically lift and drop cargo. Allows the carriage of undesirable cargo external to the cabin. On the down-side there are a lot of door latches to check on the final walk 'round!

Lets see what the gaunty memory mk1, type 1 is like..... ;)

I test in jest... ;)

The C210 that I was working with up until this week had nose gear doors that the front part of which closed after gear extension (not that I could see the operation of this during said cycle of course). :)

The a/c that I now fly has no such nose gear door config (ie; it has one piece doors), and is the previous model to that one.

Does one need more info to decipher? :D

My other thoughts lay with either an optomistic ASI in the old one, or a lazy buggah ASI in this one. Engine runs silky smooth too, and leans easily and well. Had to chk and re check that I hadn't left something dangling from it or not retracted on the way back to home base yesterday.

Thanks for that info Blue Hauler, when I got the original answer to my question of the Caravan pilot, we were standing alongside said beast (as fitted with pod from factory), and just taking in the size of the frontal area of the pod I did ask whether he was sure it was just a couple of kts? "Only a few", was the reply I got.:)

I must also add gaunty that both a/c shared the same prop at one stage or another (not even at the same time, even) :rolleyes: , and share the same model of prop at the moment. To be fair I believe that the blades on this one are somewhat more slender in comparison (they must still be within specs, as the logbook history of the prop has it not far out of being o/hauled), with the previous a/c and may well be 99% of the discrepancy.

Funny that one indicates 145, and the other 137. :(

Nice autopilot though! :)

Allows the carriage of undesirable cargo external to the cabin...

Interesting concept Blue Hauler. You thinking of fellow employees or "the guests"?

:D :D :D :D

Torres,

No, actually I was thinking of body parts, particularly if it has been a little while since they were last used!

Can some one shed some light on P31 series Panther conversion.
How much of a speed gain?
How about changes in weights?

429CJ,
Has the slower 210 had a compression test lately? One leaky pot could account for the performance difference.

Hmm, autopilot, that would be nice.

BIK, Now where do I foward the excellent red wine and a couple of Cigars to? :D Spot on, and yep the Goodyears' get to watch the ground as we go along too.

TQ, it would have to have had one around 45 hrs ago (they were all in the mid 70's, but we all know how quickly things can change), but is gonna get some close scrutiny soon I hope. I'm back in the "big smoke" for the week to knock a couple of hours more off it so we can get her looked at in the 50 hrly later in the week. That couple of kts might be attributed to a couple of other things we've found as well. Guess we'll find-out soon! :)

Psssstt! Anyone else see gaunty's shiny happy dial on the 'box the other night? ;)

429CJ, just a note........we had a C210 that displayed a marked speed loss aftre it had a gear up landing once. After a lot of testing and poking about the problem was determind to be in the engine mounts (believe it or not) aftyer shimming the mounts about a bit we managed to get the thrust line back to where it was originally and viola, speed came back. something to do with thrust line and angle of incidence I believe. anyway, a worn or recently replaced engine mount could be the problem.

Makes sense, Wauzza! I would have never even considered that as a possible explanation for your situation. I guess that's why the engineers earn those big bucks! ;)

Cheers. :)

CJ ...

Somebody musta been sayin somethin good about Cessnas... :D

Oz, I think he was just calling the whole game (GA) as he saw it. Fair enough too.

BIK, hows about I get one of me mates at BK to drop them into the clearing upon station passage during one of his studes navs? ;)

This is a little like the argument Aussie Rules vs Rugby, and which is the better game to play/watch.

I think, to a lage degree, it depends on what you played at school/learnt to fly on.

I learnt on S/E Pipers, and have never had any affection for S/E Cessnas even though I flew quite a number. However, I never flew a multi Piper, all my time having ben on multi Cessnas, so I have a great liking for them.

It's a discussion/argument with no end though.

I've just read back through a few threads, and the item on pax in nose lockers hit a chord with me.

A previous boss in the NT was the pilot way back in the days of SAATAS, and I was told the story by an (whaat was then a DoT) examiner.

He was in ASP, and noticed about a dozen indigenous people walking towaards an aircraft (C206 I think) with a pod. He followed, thinking that this could be interesting.

As they reached the aircraft, quite a few of the complement dropped down to the ground, and opened the pod aned started to crawl in.

He asked what was going on, and was told that they were going to Yeundemu. Upon being told that they couldn't travel in the pod, one said "Well that's how we came in yesterday!"

It is a true story. No action was taken against the pilot, but that was in the good ole days of flying in the outback.