A Squared
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2001
- Posts
- 3,006
Anytime a magazine writer (or anyone else) says a particular airplane is the best of all time, it's merely an exercise in presenting thier own personal prejudices as fact.
For example, if I was so misguided as to declare a "best of all time" I would say it was the Cessna 180. I operate mine on floats and skis, like the short field performance, rarely need more load capability, and the 0-470 is less expensive in terms of fuel and Mx than the IO-520 in the C-185. Now, an air taxi operator who does the same kind of flying would think that I'm completely out to lunch, for him the added cost of the IO-520 is far outweighed by the greater load capacity and perfomance (read revenue producing ability) of the C-185. Of course a guy who's flying consists of fairly long trips from pavement to pavement, occasionally in IFR, where time is of the essence (210, A36, 310, whatever) is going to think that both me and my air taxi buddy are out in left field. Like I said, any attempt to designate an all time best is just an attempt to assign some sort of importance to your own personal preferences.
>>>>>>The Bo has a Continental engine, need I say more? You will be doing top overhauls every 400hrs.
Uhhhh huuuhhh. Lycomings are flawless and Continentals are just a catastrophic engine failure waiting to happen. Right
Not that it's any more than anecdotal evidence, but I own one of each. I have 1200 hours since major on the Continental and haven't touched the engine. It's run without a burp. (ok, I replaced some blown exhaust gaskest a few years back) The Lycoming has about 1800 hours since new. I've replaced all of the cylinders, and it is currently on a stand in my garage as I reassemble it from a complete teardown due to a spalling camshaft (common in lycomings) Have you heard of the failing crankshafts in the big block lycomings? How about all those oil pump ADs on the sintered metal impellers? This is not to say that I take the opposite position, that Continentals are marvels of engineering and lycomings are all junk. I'm not that simplistic. They each have thier problems, Each manufacturer has models which seem to hold together better than others and each have models which tend to be Mx pigs. Each have their own set of chronic problems, and those problems are not necessarily the same for the 2 manufacturers. (ADs for failing crankshafts seems to be a common thread in the last 7-8 years.)
It's easy to make statements like "continentals are all junk" it's a lot harder to substantiate those statements with real evidence that one is actually measurably better than the other. It's kind of like the Ford vs Chevy debate, and arguing either position is a lot like putting one of those stickers of Calvin pissing on a Ford or Chevrolet logo in the back window of your pickup truck.
For example, if I was so misguided as to declare a "best of all time" I would say it was the Cessna 180. I operate mine on floats and skis, like the short field performance, rarely need more load capability, and the 0-470 is less expensive in terms of fuel and Mx than the IO-520 in the C-185. Now, an air taxi operator who does the same kind of flying would think that I'm completely out to lunch, for him the added cost of the IO-520 is far outweighed by the greater load capacity and perfomance (read revenue producing ability) of the C-185. Of course a guy who's flying consists of fairly long trips from pavement to pavement, occasionally in IFR, where time is of the essence (210, A36, 310, whatever) is going to think that both me and my air taxi buddy are out in left field. Like I said, any attempt to designate an all time best is just an attempt to assign some sort of importance to your own personal preferences.
>>>>>>The Bo has a Continental engine, need I say more? You will be doing top overhauls every 400hrs.
Uhhhh huuuhhh. Lycomings are flawless and Continentals are just a catastrophic engine failure waiting to happen. Right
Not that it's any more than anecdotal evidence, but I own one of each. I have 1200 hours since major on the Continental and haven't touched the engine. It's run without a burp. (ok, I replaced some blown exhaust gaskest a few years back) The Lycoming has about 1800 hours since new. I've replaced all of the cylinders, and it is currently on a stand in my garage as I reassemble it from a complete teardown due to a spalling camshaft (common in lycomings) Have you heard of the failing crankshafts in the big block lycomings? How about all those oil pump ADs on the sintered metal impellers? This is not to say that I take the opposite position, that Continentals are marvels of engineering and lycomings are all junk. I'm not that simplistic. They each have thier problems, Each manufacturer has models which seem to hold together better than others and each have models which tend to be Mx pigs. Each have their own set of chronic problems, and those problems are not necessarily the same for the 2 manufacturers. (ADs for failing crankshafts seems to be a common thread in the last 7-8 years.)
It's easy to make statements like "continentals are all junk" it's a lot harder to substantiate those statements with real evidence that one is actually measurably better than the other. It's kind of like the Ford vs Chevy debate, and arguing either position is a lot like putting one of those stickers of Calvin pissing on a Ford or Chevrolet logo in the back window of your pickup truck.
