Anyone has experience with this plane?

One pilot moving to Costa Rica is looking to buy one and bring it to fly our uninproved strips.
Either this or a turbine Cessna 210.

I recommended against the 210 and in favor of a Soloy Cessna 206 (The police has a couple of those here and are amazing)

If I remember correctly, they didn't have a great reputation as a bush plane as the wing is just not right (or something like that.)

I vote for the SOLOY 206, big time!

G44

Zzz wrote:If I remember correctly, they didn't have a great reputation as a bush plane as the wing is just not right (or something like that.)

Plus, they are made out of plastic or some sort of chemical brew
If it isn't made out of metal, it doesn't belong in the back country!
Tube and Fabric is the way to go. Monocogue (my current predicament) not near as good, plastic… good luck
Look into insurance. It might open your eyes.

237

Plus, I don't think you'd want to be flying around in what looks like a stretched-goose

Just for the looks alone I would never buy it, its very ugly.

Like all the other responses, I have no direct experience with the Comp AIr. I did give a flight review to a Canadian Pilot who owned a Comp Air 6 with a piston engine. He had owned a C-185 previously. He said that the Comp Air was a better plane than the Cessna in every way. Land shorter, Take off shorter, fly fast for longer and haul more. He also said that the engineering specs the wings for a higher strength than a 185 as well. He also felt that it was a better handling aircraft than a 185. This may be like trying to sell the Harley crowd on the absolute superiority of a Honda motorcycle...it may be the truth, but impossible to accomplish.

Like I said....it is second hand info, but at least I was talking to the owner of the aircraft. He showed me a bunch of pictures that looked gorgeous and of the tiny strip he gets in and out of in BC. If I had the $ i might buy one (If I could fly it first, of course). I wouldn't worry too much about composite construction. 90% of boats made in the last 50 years are made of composites and they are subjected to much worse treatment than aircraft and seem to last just fine. Remember, this was a piston plane not a turbine.

I like the look of the 6 better:



Searching for a Comp Air 8-piston (which doesn't exist apparently) I ran across a lot of photos of the Comp Air 8 in a crumpled pile on the ground, most times on fire, like 5-6 different crashes in a 45 second Google search... yikes!

I flew a CompAir 6 that had that BIG Lyc IO-720. I thought it was a great plane! It had pretty docile stalling qualities and would haul ass (all things considered). The one I flew had VG's AND Stall Fences. It had good rudder authority. Kind of reminded me of a 185 on steroids.