By golly you are correct, it's so easy to get you Charlies mixed up.
But based on your choice of aircraft, you do appreciate speed. I once had an Aerostar, marvelous airplane unless you have to change a rear cylinder. Were you active in the ICS? Your name seems so familiar.

George

My vote for the class of the Comanches is the 260C - that is a fantastic little plane!

Lest we not forget Gregg's Twin Bonanza "Excalibur". He's got 2 of those beastly engines!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycoming_IO-720

They missed one, Jack Riley had a 414 conversion with turbo 720’s. I flew it and hated it.
What a pig.

I know of a Glasair III with one on it.

The only weak point with the com 400 was their first generation magnetos...one had to be an expert do do a hot start.... by the way Lycoming’s chief pilot died testing a overhaul in Williamsport...I don’t remember the cause

If anyone is interested there is a derelict one at my airport.

It seems that most/many engine modifications deliver more issues than benefits. With the IO-720 Lycoming, the one that worked was the Queen Air. I only flew in one once, but there were definite performance gains. There is some commercial operation in the mid-west that pretty much bought them all up and wore them out. They were easy to maintain, long lived, and relatively inexpensive.

Jg

I think Gregg's the one that said cams alone are 15k a pop

Speaking of IO720 Queen Airs, there is a nice one for sale on Controller now for sale that is under 200k. Looks like a nice plane for a huge family

Gregg's Excalibur is beautiful. I keep trying to convince him to let me fly it, no joy yet.

Don’t forget the De Havilland Dove with the Riley conversion. Turbo normalized too.

I used to fly with a friend in a Rajay 250 Comanche, it used 2 also.
It was fast at 18-20 thousand feet... (until the mags got worn and cross fired at altitude)

I flew the converted Brave 400(removed the failed Tiara), and the factory Brave 375, with IO720s. They had the mags figured out by then, no problem with hot starts.

It seems that most/many engine modifications deliver more issues than benefits. With the IO-720 Lycoming, the one that worked was the Queen Air. I only flew in one once, but there were definite performance gains. There is some commercial operation in the mid-west that pretty much bought them all up and wore them out. They were easy to maintain, long lived, and relatively inexpensive.

Jg

It seems that most/many engine modifications deliver more issues than benefits. With the IO-720 Lycoming, the one that worked was the Queen Air. I only flew in one once, but there were definite performance gains. There is some commercial operation in the mid-west that pretty much bought them all up and wore them out. They were easy to maintain, long lived, and relatively inexpensive.

Jg[/quote]


Bemidji Aviation. I rent a hanger in BJI, we see the Queen Airs on the ramp all the time. They have a fleet of them flying freight. My son works there (in the office). I think they contract with UPS...maybe others too. Very active and growing. I think they own the STC for the IO-720 Queen Air conversion.[/quote]

They own all of the Excalibur STCs. They bought most of the Excalibur left over inventory also from my Starman Auction.