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jonstark

P206 -vs- U206

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As an AFFI-- I have done about 100 jumps from the 206U (ours had a floater bar on the top and a step outside) and 100 jumps from a 182 (comparing it to the P model)

Both planes were fine -- a 206U without the step running along the cargo door would have been much more difficult I would imagine. If i had to chose I would say the P model as the student can get all the way outside and present better

I am now a turbine whore and have put the days of the small planes behind me


The pimp hand is powdered up ... say something stupid

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For tandems, I much prefer U206, especially when students are tall or fat.

I have done hundreds of PFF jumps from Cessna 182, 205 and P206. All are easy to launch a 3-way from.
Heck! You could have a picnic or host a dance on some of those steps!
Sorry, but I have never done AFF from U206.
Tried a stock U206 a few times during an AFFI course, but failed the course ... something to do with too many unstable exits.
External steps and handles would help a lot for AFF.

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Is it possable to seat the pilot right and remove the left door on the U206. Can you have it both ways? Cargo door and 182 , but from the other side of the plane
_________________________________________

Someone dies, someone says how stupid, someone says it was avoidable, someone says how to avoid it, someone calls them an idiot, someone proposes rule chan

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You'd need to have the pitot heat on to prevent jumpers from using the pitot tube as a floater handle.

You'd probably want to have the master switch and mag switch (keys), and fuel boost pump switches moved to the center or right side of the instrument panel, to prevent assistance from tandem passengers. Also, there might be a situation where it would be handy to get to the fuel primer. All four of those things are typically on the left side of the panel.

After that, it's just a question of the pilot getting comfortable flying from the right seat, with flight instruments on the opposite side of the panel. Flight instructors do it all the time.

Mark

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Is it possable to seat the pilot right and remove the left door on the U206. Can you have it both ways? Cargo door and 182 , but from the other side of the plane



I've heard talk from one of the old grey hairs at my local DZ about back in the day before they got all fancy about putting in-flight doors in place of the cargo doors of a U206 that they would just leave the cargo doors off the U206 they had then and climb to altitude with the doors off always and the pilot flew from the left position... in the summer... but then in the winter, they would put the cargo doors back on, the pilot's seat was switched over to the right position, and they had an in-flight door on the left side of this U206 ala-C182-right-side in-flight door... so I guess it can be done. ;)

What would be really interesting would be to take a U206, set it up with the pilot on the right and an in-flight door on the left-front and also have the cargo doors off... lauch a 3-way from the cargo doors and a 2-way from the left strut... not sure why, but I guess its just the stuff of bored skydivers... but I digress...
:D

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Is it possable to seat the pilot right and remove the left door on the U206. Can you have it both ways? Cargo door and 182 , but from the other side of the plane



I've heard talk from one of the old grey hairs at my local DZ about back in the day before they got all fancy about putting in-flight doors in place of the cargo doors of a U206 that they would just leave the cargo doors off the U206 they had then and climb to altitude with the doors off always and the pilot flew from the left position... in the summer... but then in the winter, they would put the cargo doors back on, the pilot's seat was switched over to the right position, and they had an in-flight door on the left side of this U206 ala-C182-right-side in-flight door... so I guess it can be done. ;)

What would be really interesting would be to take a U206, set it up with the pilot on the right and an in-flight door on the left-front and also have the cargo doors off... lauch a 3-way from the cargo doors and a 2-way from the left strut... not sure why, but I guess its just the stuff of bored skydivers... but I digress...
:D



sad to report my local DZ has a U206 without a door, summer and winter, in Canada! Makes you appreciate a 182 with a door.

burrrrrr.

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There are a couple of STCs to install in-flight doors in Cessna U206, but it sounds like Transport Canada will not approve them.
The first in-flight door - that I saw (in the early 1990s) - was out of Colorado. It was merely a sheet of Cordura with longitudinal (long axis of fuselage) stiffeners, a clear plastic window and Velcro along the edges. The window was so small that it was difficult to spot through. The Cordura door worked well for AFF, but - because it required to hands to roll up to the ceiling - was impractical for tandems.

In the late 1990s, I saw a fancier sliding Lexan door that was installed in Davis, California. It slid the same way as the Lexan doors that are now popular in Twin Otters and King Airs. Granted, it reduced headroom, but since we only did seated exits, that was not an issue.

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