no one has commented about the great lines, its a gorgeous looking airplane
just needs a bit of make up
some airplanes look just right, this is one of them, thats why i took the picture
another airplane i wish i flown.

To my inexperienced eyes, she looks like an A* on steroids. And that's a compliment.

That's a fun plane.

It's a San Antonio sewer pipe

The flying fuel leak. Short notice trips to Comair were very common. If we couldn't fix the leak, they got a guy from the factory. His name was Charlie and that's all he did, fly around fixing fuel leaks on these beast. I think he took baths in MEK. You'd remember him if you ever met him.

The flying fuel leak. Short notice trips to Comair were very common. If we couldn't fix the leak, they got a guy from the factory. His name was Charlie and that's all he did, fly around fixing fuel leaks on these beast. I think he took baths in MEK. You'd remember him if you ever met him.

beep...beep...beep....beep....but rarely a beeeeeeeeeeeep

always wary of a runaway event possibility..which side is the trim set at?

Looks like a black hole that sucks nothing but money to me.

Mr. Raazt,
You are correct. It is very near humorous, but yes, there was a criteria in the service manual that described allowable fuel leaks. I recall there were 4 or 5 classifications for the puddle on the hangar floor. It was a liberal that wrote the service manual. Incredible it was to see the allowable fuel spill, albeit not dangerous. As I recall there was a time frame and measurement of the diameter of the puddle, which was......the "GO slash NO GO gauge"
Very high tech but good Lord I love it when that "go/no go" decision is placed with the operator and their maintenance team.

You are not wrong Todd.
These aircraft served a very useful purpose during an era that'll never be here again. There is no lost love between myself and these aircraft, but they've earned a place in history.

Ok, I still don't get it. It's not that complicated to fly and it's not that bad on MX. Seriously, you guys need a flight director? Are you crying about your autopilot?!? Swearingen was a genius, Merlins and Metros are the cat's ass. Where's Erwin when he's needed to back me up. You people need to go post in the KA section, lol, your skirts are bunching up. This here is a man's airplane.

Pussies.

Also, I almost pissed myself when I read "TX tampon". Excellent.

We retrofitted a small Fleet of these Metroliner's, about 20 years ago. Well Built machines, made to be worked on, easy access to most of the craft.

The aircraft are not hard to work on and dispatch reliability is high. That is my experience and after roughly 500 hours in the cockpit and being side by side with my mechanic through several ABCD events.

The metros were built to make money and did/do just that. Most were ordered without autopilots since they are operated by two crew in most cases (at least at the airlines I am familiar with). Merlin's are often single pilot and usually have an autopilot and FD.

I have not found the Merlin hard to fly. Peter built a truck for a man to drive and Ed built the airplane for pilots to fly. It is a bit heavy on control force inputs but is very stable when trimmed. I don't watch movies/read books/listen to music when I fly. I concern myself with the flight until shutdown whether it is a 18 minute flight or 8:30 flight.

Fuel leaks are prone to many wet wing aircraft and the metro is no exception. Merlins are generally better in this regard due to shorter wings.

When I was getting introduced to the Merlin my instructor looked at me and said "this is not your Grandma's King Air...you need some swinging berries to fly this"

My other instructor warned me as I was leaving after training "stay on top of it...it'll bite you in the ass if you let it". That would be code for DO NOT get slow.

Perimeter Airlines, Bearskin Airlines and several others up in Canada are running these hard day in and day out all year long. They are installing G950 avionics in the fleet at a very high cost. When I asked if the old metros were worthy of such an expensive upgrade they said there is nothing out there that will give them the profit margin that the Metro does. Of course, they know what they are doing when it come to maintaining them and I have yet to hear them gripe about the fleet that employs hundreds of people.