Navions, and TWIN NAVIONs, are really cool

Tantalum

Tantalum

Final Approach
Joined
Feb 22, 2017
Messages
9,228
Display Name
Display name:
San_Diego_Pilot
Something about me loves twins. Just feels the way a plane "should"

It's well known here that the top of the list for me is the Aerostar, but the Velocity Twin, Aztec, T-Bone, are all up there

Anyway, there aren't many Navion Twins out there, allegedly there are less than 5 left flying in the world, but I recently started following Alex Praglowski's aviation YouTube vids. He's got a good little Navion Twin video up and actually goes up for a ride in one

To save you from the clickbait
-no near disasters
-no flashy Insta/FB graphics
-just a basic video with shots of a Canadian Twin Navion with some polite narration describing a bit about the plane (how many built, years, facts and figures, etc)

 
I wanted to swat his hands a few times for coming off of the throttles on the roll. :D
 
schmookeeg said:
I wanted to swat his hands a few times for coming off of the throttles on the roll. :D
Click to expand...
I noticed that too.. just figured they did things different in Canada. I wasn't a fan of his landings, no where near the center (or is it centre?) line!

Cool plane though, I honestly didn't think there were any left flying out there
 
Less than five is an exaggeration. But there weren’t that many to begin with. Every twin Navion was converted from a single. Originally they were converted based on a page of manufacturer's instructions. This allegedly led to the STC process. However, the two twin Navion styles each has a type certificate of its own. The American Navion Society owns one of them and the other is out in lala land (thankfully the clowns who own the single-engine type certificate do not have it).

You can tell the difference between the two styles by looking at the tail. The early Riley/Temco D17 twins built the larger vertical stab/rudder by taking a horizontal stab and elevator and mounting it vertically. It's kind of shaped like a pre-swept tail 182 fin. The Camair has what just appears to be a scaled up single engine tail (more trapezoidal in shape).

There are a few pictures around of ones going through the conversion that still have the center engine mounted making what appears to be a trimotor Navion. Those never flew.
 
Last edited:
^allegedly a Beech 18 will be coming on line here mid November.. the rental rate is not cheap but damn
 
Talk about a plane that checks all of the boxes:
Radial Engine
Multi-Engine
Tailwheel
Retract
Aerobatic
STOL
Warbird
Executive

What more could anyone want? @Fearless Tower got it right.
 
Got my Multi in the one below. Was working on my MEI when it was totaled in a hangar with straight line winds, Ennis, TX around 1985. Dad also had a disassembled Swift in the hangar and we never found one of the wings, best guess is that it is in the lake next to the airport. A one gallon can of hydraulic fluid was still on the slab where we placed it.

Twin Navion.png
 
Navion Customs is probably the best Navion restorer in the country. That is a nice looking plane.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top