A new Cessna 400

[Dr. O]

A pilot on our field just got a Cessna 400... Nice looking airplane and the glass panel is quite a video game... My concern is the 'ten foot tall and bullet proof' attitude I sense in the pilot - he's actually a nice guy... Yes, it can cruise at 25,000, and yes it is fast, and yes the electronics are amazing, but the laws of physics don't give a sheet...

He started flying just a few years back, progressed rapidly and for a couple of years rented the local FBO's Skyhawk so many hours a year he paid for it by himself... Then he bought an older Skylane, got his instrument rating, put a fresh engine on the plane and has flown the wings off it... He flies the family to Montana for skiing, and flies for his business, down to Ohio for football games, to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for fishing, etc... He has on more than one time had to leave the airplane weathered in half way across the country and either drive or fly commercial to get home... My impression in a short chat with him is that he believes this new airplane will allow him to leap over the weather... I have a bad feeling about this... I hope I'm wrong...

denny-o

 

[poadeleted20]

When the Cessna 400 was the Columbia 400, and they first installed the electric wing heaters, their advertisements in the aviation press said something like, "Your icing worries melt away at the flick of a switch." Perhaps this pilot read and believed that ad. Or, given his apparent willingness to walk away from the plane when conditions are bad, perhaps he's smarter'n a box'o'rocks after all.

 

[ClimbnSink]

Jealous much? Sounds like the 'new' guy is doing just fine.

 

[Bob Noel]

I like that the guy has more than once left the airplane rather than push it.
Isn't that a good sign?

 

[PittsDriver]

He sounds to me like a guy that's flying a lot, getting a lot of utility out of his cert/ratings and is willing to make good weather decisions if he's leaving his plane behind due to weather.

Having owned and flown for 3+ years an '05 Columbia 400 I can attest that it's an amazingly capable SE 4 place aircraft. That "video game" of which you refer is in some ways a game changer on IFR travel - XM weather, terrain alone make longer trips much more manageable than the way I used to travel before with just a storm scope for weather.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

He sounds to me like a guy that's flying a lot, getting a lot of utility out of his cert/ratings and is willing to make good weather decisions if he's leaving his plane behind due to weather.

What he said.

Two good signs here: First of all, he's left the plane behind. If he's willing to do that, he doesn't have the invincibility problem.

Second, he's flying a lot and doing lots of cross country - And I don't mean the 50nm variety. LONG cross countries are very educational - That's why I like doing 'em so much! You get out of the nest and get to work with different controllers, different terrain, different weather, yadda yadda yadda.

The ability to fly at 25K means that you may well be able to get up and over a lot of the weather. Not all of it by any means, but it certainly gives you more options. Big mess of icy clouds between you and your destination? Well, tops in winter rarely go to 25K. (You've still gotta be able to get up and down, of course.) A lot of the smaller thunderstorms in the summer only go to the upper teens. You can stay out of the tops of a lot of stuff at 25K. Certainly not all of it, but like I said - More options.

 

[PittsDriver]

The ability to fly at 25K means that you may well be able to get up and over a lot of the weather.

In 10+ years of flying turbo charged aircraft certified to 25,000', I've been up in the flight levels once and that was just to do it for no particular reason. I've spent a lot of time in the teens on cannula and always carried the masks onboard but it never quite seemed worth it to me to get up there where I might die if my O2 system failed. It's also not high enough to get over convective stuff. I've flown a few Columbias back from Bend to the east coast and never felt the need to get above 17.5. The biggest bennie for the turbo is jumping up quickly to altitude at a decent forward speed. More than a few times I blasted through a potential icing layer at 1400 fpm while at 160 kts true.

I spent most of my time between 9000 & 12000 in the 190's TAS on 18 g/h.

 

[steingar]

One of my pals bought one while it was still Lanceair and had steam gauges. Very capable machine, I was really impressed.

 

[weilke]

Sounds like he would be the poster-child for what is good with general aviation. He gained his experience in a classic step-up aircraft and is moving up. I bet he'll be flying a VLJ in about 2 years.

 

[sba55]

In 10+ years of flying turbo charged aircraft certified to 25,000', I've been up in the flight levels once and that was just to do it for no particular reason. I've spent a lot of time in the teens on cannula and always carried the masks onboard but it never quite seemed worth it to me to get up there where I might die if my O2 system failed. It's also not high enough to get over convective stuff. I've flown a few Columbias back from Bend to the east coast and never felt the need to get above 17.5. The biggest bennie for the turbo is jumping up quickly to altitude at a decent forward speed. More than a few times I blasted through a potential icing layer at 1400 fpm while at 160 kts true.

I spent most of my time between 9000 & 12000 in the 190's TAS on 18 g/h.

Very true. Just because the service ceiling is 25,000', flying regularly at that altitude often isn't a good idea. As you mentioned, 25k' doesn't get you over much weather to begin with. The kind of weather that it usually gets you over is wx that you don't want to climb or descent through in mst aircraft (eg. ice).

But more importantly - I know of very few TC engines who can perform well at the airplane's service ceiling due to temperature and cooling issues.

 

[Jay Honeck]

Sounds like he would be the poster-child for what is good with general aviation. He gained his experience in a classic step-up aircraft and is moving up. I bet he'll be flying a VLJ in about 2 years.

A dying breed, sadly.