Table Of Content
This is a difficult question to answer because aircraft fill market niches. On takeoff, it rotates like a big aircraft and upon landing, it has a true land-on-the-mains-and-lower-the-nose feel. I urge every twin Cessna owner and pilot to take their pilot maintenance just as seriously and on-schedule as they do aircraft maintenance. This means regularly scheduled training at one of the simulator schools and alternating training with one of the insurance-approved in-aircraft training firms.
Aircraft Performance Data
The 340 Ram VI 335 hp engines burn 18.3 gallons at 65% power and 15.6 gallons at 55% power. An honest 20,000-foot altitude standard temperature speed is 200 knots in both aircraft at 65% power. Range with my 203 gallons usable is 800 miles (900 miles nautical at 55%). This assumes 30 gallons reserve plus 18 gallons used extra in the taxi and climb.
Operating Weights
Savvy Maintenance: Actionable intelligence from big data - AOPA
Savvy Maintenance: Actionable intelligence from big data.
Posted: Wed, 01 Feb 2017 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Owners we spoke with overwhelmingly agree the annual must be done by a shop with twin Cessna expertise. TAS aviation in Defiance, Ohio, was singled out by a few owners. We spent four days together in Defiance, Ohio doing the pre-buy with the owner present, and Jerry walked me through the entire process. When the sale was final, he even acted as my check out pilot for the 5 hours of dual required by my insurance carrier.
Airliner cruise
There were 12 stall/spin crashes, most of which were in the pattern. One of the pattern stall pilots was found to be badly impaired due to heavy ingestion of painkillers. Four of the stall events were in airplanes that were carrying a load of ice. Cessna 340 owner Philip Mattison told us of his switch to four-blade MT composite props that increased climb rates by 200 FPM and cruise speeds by 7 knots as well as giving cooler CHTs and smoother operation. The 340’s claimed single-engine rate of climb is 315 FPM, better than the 414 (290 FPM), Beech P58 Baron (270) and the Piper 601P (240) and 602P (302) Aerostars.
A fast, pressurized cabin-class twin thats an excellent step-up from a high performance single.
With six people, the fuel load must be reduced to some 112 gallons. Most owners have owned their aircraft for 20-years or more and wouldn’t trade them. They describe the Cessna 340 as a stable and reliable IFR platform, which is relatively easy to fly. As we saw earlier, current prices sit between US$115,000 to US$550,000.
The aircraft is also quite sleek, requiring some thought to slow down and come down without shock cooling the engines and incurring expensive repair bills. Getting the aircraft back to the 160-knot flap extension speed takes some thought, after which it gets easier to slow to the 140-knot gear extension limit. However, once flaps and gear are down, you drop to the other side of the lift/drag curve, requiring you to maintain power to stop high descent rates. You’ll need to maintain some of that power right down to the flare.
Aerostar 702: Still The Fastest - Plane & Pilot
Aerostar 702: Still The Fastest.
Posted: Fri, 19 Jun 2020 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Question: Aircraft Gross Weight refers to what?
Insurance is about $4400 for $1 million smooth and $300,000 hull value. I could not sell the plane for $300,000, but also could not replace it for much less. Annual simulator training is required, which runs about $2500 plus travel expenses.
Cessna 340 Accidents: Landing Gear
…”, or “I don’t like those small airplanes/” Now, even the most distrustful general aviation passengers (my Mom) are sold. It is beautiful to look at, has too much baggage space, gives you a beautiful ride in smooth and turbulent air, and is truly a cabin class airplane. I look forward to many years of being the captain of my own airliner. And if you have only one locker tank (which many 340s do have), remember to use crossfeed; dump all 120 pounds from a locker into one tip tank, and the imbalance will be enough to upset even your autopilot.
A fast, pressurized cabin-class twin thats still one of the best step-ups from a high performance single.
They either lack the range, the carrying capacity or the ability to deal with real-world weather, thus an airline or a charter outfit gets the call. Stalls are as honest as a Kansas sunrise, so benign that it’s hard to imagine anyone getting into trouble in a 340. The airplane is as tractable going into semi-short mini airports of 2,000 feet or more as it is landing at the JFKs and LAXs of the world. VMC isn’t much above stall, even lower with the RAM VG system installed. The 340’s gear is taken straight from the Cessna 414 Chancellor, an airplane that grosses 6,750 pounds, so it’s probably tough enough to withstand dirt strips.
The 340’s fuel system demands respect; nine pilots either ran out of fuel or mismanaged it, leading to unintended landings. CFIT accidents claimed seven 340 pilots and their passengers—more than half of those involved pilots who decided that approach minimums were for others and flew into the ground before arriving at the airport. The other big area of concern we saw was connected with the sweaty palms on the Cessna 340’s yoke when the weather was down. There were seven loss of control (LOC) crashes in IMC, two of which involved pilots who weren’t on instrument clearances trying to land in dense fog. One LOC accident involved a pilot who told ATC right after departure that he had to stay out of the clouds because of an “instrument problem.” Rather than return, he repeated the mantra to subsequent controllers. He eventually flew into clouds, lost control and flew into the ground.
You have to make room in the mains first, otherwise you’ll vent the pumped fuel over the side. At the entry level, you had Twin Comanches, Apaches, Aztecs, Barons and the Cessna 310. The Cessna 340 is one of the most successful light twins still flying, with almost 600 registered in the US alone, and it has become the world’s best-selling piston-powered, cabin-class pressurized twin. Initially powered by two 285 horsepower Continental TSIO-520-K engines, owners considered the original 340 aircraft underpowered. With approved third-party modifications surfacing for installing 310 horsepower engines, in 1975, Cessna moved to release the 340A model, powered by two 310 horsepower Continental TSIO-520-N engines.
After I purchased the airplane, I met my wife and children in Nashville, we flew to Destin, FL, and then they accompanied me all the way back from Destin to Santa Monica in one day. No headaches, no hypoxia and lots of weather, only this time looking down at it or 50 miles away from the big tall buildups. With all the onboard equipment (radar and Stormscope) as well as the de-ice, this is quite a capable airplane, but I feel that it’s best capability is to stay out and above of the weather. I cannot say enough about how comfortable and fun to fly this mini-airliner is. Too soon to know just how much this will cost me, but I dont expect my cost/mile to be that much more than the Seneca was.
So it comfortably operates out of 2600-foot fields, but about 3200 feet is a balanced field. Operating costs averaged $224/hour for the first airplane (owned in the 90s) and $493/hour for the second (currently owned). This doesnt include additional major expenses of an engine replacement (about $30,000), a VG kit ($4617) or Flight Safety initial training ($4350).
Most could climb at 1,500 fpm without straining and maintain strong ascent to 15,000 feet or more. Not all twins of the 340’s days have accelerate-stop and accelerate-go performance tables but, to Cessna’s credit, the 340 does. Under standard conditions, a 340 that loses an engine at liftoff speed (91 knots) can be brought to a full stop within 3000 feet of brake release. The 340 is a high flyer, with a service ceiling of nearly 30,000 feet.
