vpjr 1 #76 January 8, 2008 Because of the increase purchase cost of the 206 vs the 182 you need the 2 extra seats for the plane to get close to making its own money. At 5 seats you have to get some of the tandem money. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ZigZagMarquis 8 #77 January 8, 2008 Yeah, I always figured you're dad wasn't getting rich running just 5 jumpers in his 206... ... kinda makes you appreciate those early bird 206s loads when he'd take it with just 3, sometimes just 2, up jumpers and STILL give you your 4th jump of the day free... even though we always whined about it being a Cessna vs. the Otter... Quote ...and my stripped planes weigh under 1900lbs. = 1700lbs. useful load... Jr, once you stripped your birds down, did you pencil drain the fuel tanks and actually weigh them to come up with that weight? Or did you just weight what you took out and subtract that from what the manual said the stock empty weight was? The stuff I work on, after a major mod or overhaul we have to no shit weigh the aircraft and come up with an empty CG location... basically rebaseline the airplane. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vpjr 1 #78 January 8, 2008 Thanks for the correction on the fuel. 40 gals is more than enough for 3 loads of 6 to 13k and VFR reserves. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 2,476 #79 January 8, 2008 >. . .single lever operation that a low time pilot couldnt screw up. >. . .Tired and slow tandem masters take up to 15 minutes to get back in the plane. I understand the rest of your points - but are less experienced pilots and cheaper/slower TM's really that much cheaper in the long run? Enough to partially offset the cost of such a conversion? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites