Looking for a Utility Airplane for purchase

MNFlyboy

MNFlyboy

Well-Known Member
So I now work for a Wind Turbine company and need to help them upgrade the aircraft we fly. Right now we have a turbo Mooney M20T 231 which is great. Full fuel, one body, ad 250lbs of tools, cargo, and an overnight bag looks great at 12 gph doing 180ktas above FL180. Pretty fun until you have to take someone else with you or need more equipment for work. I have been looking at an A36, C210, and the C207 and would like some input from pilots that have flown these things. The A36 seems to be checking in around $125K+ these days whereas the Cessnas are a bit easier to come by, unless I want the Turbo, and I do want a turbo.

Looking for opinions on the aircraft mentioned above.

Typical mission requires carriage of 1-2 people and about 300lbs +/-50lbs cargo and flying anywhere in the 48 contiguous. I've gone coast to coast twice in a week. Ultimately I'm looking for an improvement in useful load first and foremost, and then in price and fuel burn.

Thanks
 
Purely anecdotal here, but from what I understand, the turbo 207 might be right up your alley here. It's the SUV of the piston single world, supposedly. Smarter guys than me will chime in.

A lot of fans of the Cherokee 6 around here, too.
 
MNFlyboy said:
So I now work for a Wind Turbine company and need to help them upgrade the aircraft we fly. Right now we have a turbo Mooney M20T 231 which is great. Full fuel, one body, ad 250lbs of tools, cargo, and an overnight bag looks great at 12 gph doing 180ktas above FL180. Pretty fun until you have to take someone else with you or need more equipment for work. I have been looking at an A36, C210, and the C207 and would like some input from pilots that have flown these things. The A36 seems to be checking in around $125K+ these days whereas the Cessnas are a bit easier to come by, unless I want the Turbo, and I do want a turbo.

Looking for opinions on the aircraft mentioned above.

Typical mission requires carriage of 1-2 people and about 300lbs +/-50lbs cargo and flying anywhere in the 48 contiguous. I've gone coast to coast twice in a week. Ultimately I'm looking for an improvement in useful load first and foremost, and then in price and fuel burn.

Thanks
Click to expand...


The 210 is a work horse. You can put anything in it that will fit through the door, it's hard to load out of the CG range, and there are tons of parts out there for them.

The same can't be said for the A36. Although it's still a good airplane, it's more of a people hauler than the 210.

C210T's get about 1500lbs usefull load, and about 700NM range

A36's get about 1300lbs of usefull load, and about 800NM range. The range only comes from an increase in speed.

Here is where the info came from

http://www.risingup.com/planespecs/info/

I would toss out the 207. If you make coast to coast trips, the loss in speed would be a big hit to your trip time.
 
A piston Pilatus Porter?

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/classifieds/detail_page.cgi?ID=92042;d=1

162184-largest_0727081629.jpg
 
Ohhhh, they do, however, max cruise is 117kts. Thats a LONG CROSS COUNTRY. Next . . . .

Thanks though! If I could only afford the turbine!:D
 
Perhaps a used Maule? I think C180/185's would be more expensive (better airplane IMHO, just more expensive).
 
Sherpa looks great!! No info on the piston from the website, looks like it's still in testing?

Maule would be good, but it's still only got 800lbs~ useful and I need more than that. If I knew it was always going to be me, I'd take all four rear seats out and just go like the wind, course the Mooney can still do that as well. The Maule certainly would be easier to load and unload cargo though.

Thanks for the suggestions! Sure is fun looking for new airplanes!
 
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