Skymaster down in Los Angeles

[patrolpilot]

The comments on Katherine's Reports speculate an engine failure, but I think he would have stated that over the retraction comment.

I thought I would add a bit to my comments about the hand pump. I'm a tall dude with long arms and, even though crouched over, can fly the airplane and pump the gear down.

I did three Skymaster transitions last year, and none of the pilots could reach the pump handle while flying the airplane; they had to be completely bent over to reach it. So I drilled in them; five pumps max, fly the airplane while looking for traffic, and repeat. This year, I had a 210 transition guy, L model, and had the same problem. Five pumps max, fly the airplane while looking for traffic, and repeat. There is always a rush to get the gear down along with fixation on this specific task.

Here is an interesting comment on Kathryn's Report...



No one can say that about my airplane, the $$$$$ are probably going to put me in the ground.

[mshac]

Ah, the "Low Budget 337 Owner" rears his ugly head again. SMH

I have no idea if its true, but there is a belief out there that lots of 337's went derelict due to cheap owners. 337 has one of the highest abandoned airframe rates of any modern civilian aircraft.

Now those derelict 337s are being resurrected by low budget owners who want a "safe" twin engine for cheap. They buy the derelict aircraft for a song, and they quickly find out the the cheapest thing about a "cheap" twin is the purchase price - everything else after purchase is decidedly "not cheap".

When buying older "cheap" airplanes, I tell prospective single engine owners to plan on up to another 50% of the purchase price to get the airplane 100% right. I tell prospective twin engine owners to allow up to another 100% of the sales price to get it to 100%.

Not sure why the 337 has gone down this unfortunate path, but it clearly has.

Furthermore, the gear door design is truly poor. I can't think of any other aircraft that drastically loses performance when the gear is being cycled. The holder of the STC to remove the gear doors could do the 337 community a great service by making it free or low-cost. Enough have been sold over the years that plenty of profit has been made. If I owned the STC, I would do it in a heartbeat. The current cost is $3800 plus 24-30 hours of install time.

[patrolpilot]

I’ve looked at a number of “good” buys, for use in the GoM, they all have been junk. I put them at about +200% of what the owners want to put them to work.

The early 210s faced the same gear door issue.

[mshac]

Glad those gear doors/speed brakes didn't get you Patrol Pilot! Do you have the gear door delete STC? If not, would you consider it?

[patrolpilot]

Originally Posted by mshac

Glad those gear doors/speed brakes didn't get you Patrol Pilot! Do you have the gear door delete STC? If not, would you consider it?

Purchased the gear door removal STC immediately after the second event, then had it installed at the next scheduled maintenance interval.

[mshac]

How the H*LL did you just post an inline photo???????? That is SWEET!

Did you notice any performance changes after the STC install?

Were the labor hour estimates accurate?

Somebody needs to design an STC whereby the main gear doors open to their "speed brake" position when you need to lose altitude without shock-cooling the engines...

[patrolpilot]

Originally Posted by mshac

How the H*LL did you just post an inline photo???????? That is SWEET!

Dude, I learned how in a topic you started! Making photos appear in posts

Originally Posted by mshac

Did you notice any performance changes after the STC install?

No changes at all; aerodynamics, noise, nothing.

Originally Posted by mshac

Were the labor hour estimates accurate?

Mine took the high end.

Originally Posted by mshac

Somebody needs to design an STC whereby the main gear doors open to their "speed brake" position when you need to lose altitude without shock-cooling the engines...

That sounds spooky to me!