Have any of you flown one of these ?

[Upside]

Do any of you have any experience of the Partenavia PN68B or C ?
I am thinking about using one of the above to get a bit of multi time, and i just wonderd if any of you would mind sharing any thoughts that you may have on the aircraft with me?
Stable instrument platform, realiable etc. The good the bad and the ugly.

Thanks in anticipation

[Troy McClure]

No direct experience, but they've got one at Illawarra Flying School (Bankstown, Sydney) and the instructors raved about it.

Try finding some flying schools that have got one and e-mail a few instructors for their opinions.

[150Driver]

They're a great little toy! Piece of p**s to convert onto. I've flown Flyteam's - G-BCDK - it's based at Cranfield or Elstree. See the adverts in Flyer or Pilot.

[chuckT]

I did my twin instrument training on the P68B, and quite liked the plane... Think that it has some excellent single engine performance, it will in fact climb on one engine ( compared to the alternative at my flying school, the Seneca II), and a little less to worry about ( gear down and welded, no turbocharged engines)

Only downside was that it is hard to get in the seats without either sticking your @ss into the face of the other pilot or the opposite.

The instructors at the school off cause knew that, so they would very polite let us, the students, climb in first, and then we got the the full deal of elderly airline captain in our face

But otherwise... I liked it.... the plane that is... not the other thing...

[A Very Civil Pilot]

Did about 20 hours in one for my NZ IR. Not a bad a/c to fly.

Agree with the arse-in-face way to get into the front seats.

Also, from the front it looks like a womble (if that is of any help.)

[P.Pilcher]

Ive got about 500 hours on the P68B,C and Observer and most of those are AOC hours on charters, photographic and observational sorties. I did my twin instructor's rating on one and aterwards did a number of twin ratings on it. It has only one snag as far as its use for multi ratings and I.R's are concerned and that is its lack of retractable undercarriage. All that means is to increase the difficulty level when you eventually have to convert onto something with retractable gear. I think it is a delight to fly however and have many fond memories of the hours I have spent in its left and right hand seats.

I hope this helps.