I’m one. It’s this plane or turbine for me. Turbine is increasingly unlikely.

Fellow BT member and Aztec owner Craig Johnson just informed me that John Talmadge, the owner of Diamond Aire, died today.

He was an Aztec specialist and held the Miller, Geronimo and Metco STCs for the Aztec.

We are all saddened by the news. John was an asset to the aviation world in general, and to the PA23 community in particular.

RIP.

https://www.buffalohillfh.com/obituaries/john-talmage

http://www.diamondaire.com/

What a bummer, he was a great contributor to our passion. Blue Skies, John!!

We are wrapping this one up. Ready to go off for paint.

https://youtu.be/jLLhozB0R5Q?si=vUt4iJT0Bpna5pD0

Very sad to hear the passing of John Talmadge, he was a real gentleman and kept me efficiently supplied with parts when I operated an AzTruck. QEPD.

Been looking at Aztecs for a while. Mostly later model ones Probably their biggest claim to fame is the useful load. I see some advertised with 2000lbs useful, but I also see some with 1800, and some as low as the high 1500's. I can understand a couple hundred pound discrepancy, but what do you put into an Aztec to explain a 400+ pound difference in useful load?

14 layers of paint?

There’s a zero fuel limit 4400 lbs in my E. I’m 3333 lbs empty according to the W&B. 140 gallons means I can haul 1000 lbs with full fuel, or 1060 lbs if I left 10 gallons behind.

The old avionics and iron gyros are for sure heavy up in the nose/avionics bay. I have radar as well. That makes mine nose heavy, I often need ballast when loaded below gross.

Flying within CG ensures performance both cruise and one engine inoperative.

A fully de-iced Turbo with every option will have as little as 1560 useful, and a lightly equipped non-turbo can be as high as 2100 useful. A Turbo generally weighs 140 pounds more due to the heavier engines.

1960 to 1964 Aztecs had a 4800 pound gross weight. That group will have 1600 to 1700 pound useful loads. Serials 2504 and up are the 5200 pound gross weight. The only difference is a heavier center section spar splice plate, and that can be applied to some earlier models to give them the 400 pound weight increase. Those airplanes can approach 2200 pounds useful load.

If you don't need the altitude capabilies of the turbo, and you need the highest possible useful load, the 1965 to 1970 model years will have the lightest empty weights. The 1971 E model got heavier, and the F models even more so. Lots of extra equipment added, more plush interiors, copilot instruments, etc.

140 gallons and 1000 lbs would work for me. Can I get a deiced E or F with 1800+ lbs of useful? I've decided that I want to try and stay away from planes that are older than I am. I was born in 1976.

I'm ambivalent on the turbos. Would be nice, but where I live (upper midwest) they aren't necessary. If they push me below that 1800lbs I would have to dump them. However boots a must.

Age isn't all that important in the Aztec world. From the beginning, they were overbuilt, and every piece of metal was primed before assembly. There are no bare metals anywhere in a PA23. That's why corrosion is rarely an issue. Even on planes based in the Caribbean, internal corrosion is never a concern. So long as the exterior has decent paint, the insides will be unharmed. Unlike Cessna and Beech twins built prior to 1985 or so.

https://www.trade-a-plane.com/search?ca ... e=aircraft

That’s a contender! Avionics and away you go.

unless they are parked outside and the side windows leak at all, which many of them do. The tubing below the windows rusts and many nice planes have been totalled in that way.

I have heard that repeated more on this forum than I have actually seen. I have had rows of fuselages sitting outside in Florida and it really does not seem to me much of a problem. I have purchased many that have sat outside for 10 or 20 years that I have dissected and have seen very little frame rust. The steel tubing can be welded and replaced too but I have yet to come across one that has been repaired. I have seen rust on the lower steel fittings that mate the monocoque empennage where the steel structure ends due to puddled up water.

I did hear that there were some frames exposed in the 73 Lockhaven flood that caused issues but that would only be 73/74 year models and I have had quite a few of them with no rust.