Fabien,

slightly OT…

I think I know that King Air 200 parked right next to your T303..

that used to be an Austrian Special Survey airplane originally operated by the Austrian Ministry of Interior for charting and mapping..it is a special version with camera opening in the belly, right..?

recognized it because when it was still Austrian, I think OE-BBB, the good folks when having it repainted once "stole" the nice paint scheme a company I worked with had on it's Lear 55 in Vienna…we had that paint done at Duncan, Lincoln, Neb long time ago..

looks sharp on a King Air too…

Gerd

You're absolutely right, it used to be OE-BBB, with a glass-covered camera hole.
We transferred the paint scheme to the 303, and the 206 has a brand new scheme, slightly different.

I see most of the questions were answered already. We cruise at 24x24 and see 170kts. Climb is excellent straight up to altitude with the turbos. I have heard of the STC that increases the MP but haven't looked into it yet. The trailing link gear is quite nice coming from the Baron, I've never greased so many landings . It's funny watching the right engine rotate counterclockwise when starting. FIKI should help this winter. All in all it's a nice airplane. I'm surprised Cessna bailed on them at 300.

The copilot side window that opens helps with the ventilation. This one did not come with AC unfortunately.

There still is at least one here in Austria…been here forever and operated by the same owner forever…never heard anything negative about..

I remember I think it was in 1981 or 1982 when Cessna introduced it here in Europe, took a ride in a demo once or twice..the T303 really stood out as a very spacious and friendly flying twin..let's remember the "standard" in that class here at that time was the Seneca..

I think if I remember correctly when they stopped production that had more to do with the fact that Cessna at that time dropped out of all pistons because of the product liability situation..

had that not been the case, I'd guess the T303 would have enjoyed a much longer production run...

Yes there is also D-IGPS, which does aerial work too.

I usually use the control locks to keep the door open during start-up and taxi. The ventilation helps a bit. And Germany is not warm enough...

In icing condition, super easy, just don't wait too long to start de-icing. At higher speeds, or descent, if you waited a bit too long, that cross tail will come to your attention.

Nice bird! I like the cruciform tail, and it does look big and modern by a Beech KA.
CHeers
Mark

Why, oh why didn't Cessna put a couple of (TS)IO-550s on that plane????!!!!

I'm guessing VMCA? Same reason why the engines are derated at the moment?

I'm guessing VMCA? Same reason why the engines are derated at the moment?

Then let's do things properly and transplant a pair of RR Turbine (like they did with the P68->A-Viator)!

Keep'em pistons! A couple o' big, honkin' ones!

[/quote]

Did the IO-550 even exist back when that plane was designed? I am pretty sure the TSIO-550 did not.

Time for a TN-550 STC....

RAS[/quote]


IO-550 came out in 1983. First Crusader was 1982 model year. But IO-520s were cranking out up to 300 hp then.

Pete, I am sure that you are correct…the IO-550s guess were still some years away..

what I could imagine, at that time, the OEMs really had, in that case Cessna had TCM build a customized engine for that bird when they designed it..size-wise to fit into a slender nacelle, fuel flow wise and also power-wise..

I may be wrong, but could it be that the T303 actually was one of the last real new designs in piston twins then..?

it certainly has some very innovative features, like a "small cabin class", new structures, the excellent idea of a cruziform tail, which offers most of the advantages of a T-tail without the T-tails disadvantages ( like heavy structural weight and maybe questionable stall performance)..

Cessna at that time really created a new class of light twin with the T303…

still looks great and modern…

now I would not know about the parts situation for the T303s with Cessna…not that many were built…but judging from one I know in Vienna, I think that even was the first demo Cessna had here in 1981 and the person who still owns it bought it right away, because he liked it so much..seems to have been very reliable and probably did not need that many parts..

and they seem to have been built very well…with good quality..

We had one here at our airport for several years and I flew it occasionally. There were several of them scattered around Iowa, but most of them have moved on.

It looks great sitting on the ramp, But.... The -303 is very easy to overload, and very easy to load aft CG. One of them here in our state was totalled in a light hail storm. My understanding is they have thinner than normal skin to save weight.

The one at our airport had an engine problem and the engines are unique to that airframe and parts availability was a huge issue. As I recall it was out of service for almost a year waiting for parts.

The -303 has great ramp presence, but just does not have the strong solid feel of the other twin Cessnas. In short, IMHO, this airplane is not a peer of a Cessna 310 or 340. Both of those are far superior airplanes to the -303.....

Doug,

thank you for that update…

sure, with all that room, probably was easy to pack more than she can carry…

I do not know, do you know when Cessna built that unpressurized C-340..called C-335..? Probably still was built when the T303 production was ongoing..? While not comparable, I guess at that time they saw a market for "unpressurized cabin class" twins still..Piper did own that niche with the Navajos for quite a while…


in regards to the skins…guess yes they had to save some weight…with those relatively small engines on the T303…

Gerd