Cessna 414 or 421 - which would you buy?

[Pirate at Forty]

Labor, new turbo chargers, hoses, baffles, mounts, exhaust, etc, etc, will likely get near $70k.

http://www.ramaircraft.com/gtsio520n.htm

 

[StaySeated]

Don't both of them have an emergency ad relating to a small problem that causes the wings to seperate from the fuselage in flight? I know that they had an ead related to the exhaust buring the wings off but I thought they also had a big prob with the spar.

 

[sqwkvfr]

Don't both of them have an emergency ad relating to a small problem that causes the wings to seperate from the fuselage in flight? I know that they had an ead related to the exhaust buring the wings off but I thought they also had a big prob with the spar.

I'm surprised this didn't come up sooner.

From what I understand, there's a forthcoming Airworthiness Directive requiring modifications to wing spars or something like that. I don't think that it's been issued yet, but some foreign governmental aviation authorities have already done it or plan to do it. Politics is holding the US AD up, but you can almost bank on it happening. For what I've read, the cost of compliance is between 45 to 75 thousand dollars.

Look through the classifieds....there's a buttload of these things for sale...ever wonder why?

If it's gonna be a financial hardship for this guy just to buy the plane, he needs to RUN away from these.......for now, anyway.

 

[AeroDMB]

Neither - Both MX hogs...they are in our shop all the time.

Look into a used TBM 700, fast, they haul, pressurized, advanced, PT6, etc.

Or

Used PC12 like that was mentioned earlier, however, the acquisition cost is much higher even for a used one.

Look at the Piper Cheyenne, nice bird or even a 400LS, even nicer.

 

[350DRIVER]

Both are safe airplanes but the 421 is a mx nightmare. The 421 that I use to fly had more problems than I ever thought was possible with any one airplane, many flights I wondered how it was even 135 certified. The pressurization was always off and never functioned normally, dives and spikes were the norm and could never get up high enough to get the fuel burn to a reasonable figure. It was standard to see the cabin alt light come on since cabin would like to exceed 10,000...I would talk him into some older C90 or something along those lines if I were you.. Much more mx/user friendly and easier to operate. The engines are more than just touchy and they will do expensive things as previously stated. 375HP a side was nice when they did as they were suppose to do. 205 at 65% is a tad deceptive.

good luck

3 5 0

 

[Sphincter Boy]

I'd get the P Navajo over the 421.

 

[mizzouguy]

The 414 is a pretty nice airplane to fly but if that wing spar ad comes up it would be pretty expensive. The FAA told us the other day it is not a definate thing and if it is it will be a while before it is in place. We fly two and don't have too much problem with them. A King Air 90 might be a better airplane

 

[DAS at 10/250]

The wing spar AD is possible but total BS. In April 1999, a C421 had an inflight seperation of a wing while in the descent for KOKC. The airplane had a hard landing 18 years prior and the repair was deemed as inadequate. There is no evidence to support a fleetwide AD. However, Cessna is pushing the AD to retire the older 400 series airplanes. The FAA expected cost is $45,000, but the field estimates are coming back as $60,000. The rumor is that the AD will also emcompass the 300 series as well.

If your budget will allow get a C90. I don't think I'd want to fly any $100K cabin twin.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief2.asp?ev_id=20001205X00460&ntsbno=FTW99FA123&akey=1

 

[414Flyer]

Actually it was a C402 freighter it happened to, Texas Air Charter (name at the time)

 

[deadstick]

I'm pretty sure that wing AD will not hit the "short-nosed" 414's. I think those were out until 1976.