I'm new to Aerostars and learning. Haven't heard this one before. Is there a service bulletin or writeup somewhere on this issue?

I'm new to Aerostars and learning. Haven't heard this one before. Is there a service bulletin or writeup somewhere on this issue?

Don't know about opening the nose gear doors, but main gear doors are easy...
Use the flaps to bleed off the hydraulic pressure....

Main doors will sag....
Reach in and remove the one bolt attaching the door to the linkage...
Door drops down... easy less than 5min per side...

You can access the nose gear area through the inspection plate in the floor of the
avionics area under the nose access avionics bay... (left side forward of the cockpit)

Not sure if that gives you enough access to properly inspect the nose gear hat.

Best way is to jack the plane and swing the gear...
If your jacking make sure the jake plate bolts are short....
Too long and the bolts puncture the fuel tanks...

Aerostar is really not a plane for a generic mechanic that does not know the airplane.

Yep, that worked; we did both, opened the nose compartment plus up on jacks for a gear swing. We were able to get a good look at everything.

I currently fly a Cessna P210 Silver Eagle however am considering going to a piston twin. Before I read through the 200 pages in this thread, my home airport Rwy is 3600 feet. Will this be a showstopper for any or all of the Aerostar models, particularly in winter where sometimes there is a little snow and ice on the runway?

Thanks in advance.

Garth

As with so many things in aviation…it depends. 3600 will work for any model, but the shorter the runway the fewer options you have if you do something wrong or the plane does something wrong. Aerostars don’t like short runways, but 3600 isn’t really all that short. Owners have based out of runways at 2000 feet, but they took off and landed somewhat light and they were close to sea level. Altitude and temperature will certainly play a role. With my Superstar and the gross weight increase, on a warm summer day with full fuel and my family on board, my ground roll alone was 3100 feet (DA > 10K) but if you are lower and it’s not too hot, 3600 would be pretty easy for an Aerostar, just don’t be tempted to go below 100kts until you’re across the numbers…they don’t like flying slow. You might also want to aim for the numbers and start your flare prior to them rather than using the IFR aim points further down the runway.
I went from a T210 to an Aerostar and it was a dramatic improvement, but a Silver Eagle is a pretty big step up from my T210 so your experience may be different. After two Aerostars, I grew weary of the continuous squawks and difficulty with dispatch reliability when flying for work 2 to 3 times a week with no mechanic that knew Aerostars on my field. I switched to a twin turbine 8 years ago and never looked back. If you are used to the amount of “wrenching” you have experienced on your Rolls (probably none), get ready for a paradigm shift when you start taking care of 4 turbos/4 wastegates, 12 cylinders, and all the little air/fuel tubes and linkages that make them work properly (or not).

gotta agree with Thomas on this one. Twin turbines just have less stuff to break, and not infrequently go into the shop only for scheduled maintenance events. My experience in 4 1/2 years and 500 hours has only one unscheduled maintenance event, other than that just inspections with no shop visits between them.

Jeff Axel

Thanks for your input guys. In 3-400 hours or so on my RR engine, I've not really had to do much and I'd expect a big difference going to turbo charged pistons. There are a lot of items to look at on the engine at annual, so even though the parts required are minimal and no snags, the labor can easily be $4-5000 just for the inspection. The problem with the Rolls down the road will be the cost of the overhaul which will be expensive.

My mission is Central Canada to Southern California across the rockies and although normally I'd fly at 15-20, sometimes weather would dictate a preferred altitude of low to mid 20's and the RR doesn't like that too much, nor does the P210 with only 3.35 psi pressurization.

Jeff is aware of the MX on the P210 - I suspect its likely comparable to the Aerostar.

A Mits is a nice plane but not in the cards for a variety of reasons.

Garth

I believe price on this airplane is 495K.

https://flightinvestments.com/aircraftm1.htm

I’ve ridden in it.

Nice Aerostar.

Well maintained

Avionics and paint and engines are done.

5.0 pressurization

that is a beautiful airplane.

Yes - I've looked at that one and it is very nice. Just need to do some more self educating first.

Thanks for the link.

Garth

The 700 will usually fall right around 225 KTAS at FL250 at 19 gph per side.

The slowest one that I have seen over the years was 216 KTAS. Not sure why, but that plane did have a major wing repair that may have affected it.

The plane that Trey has now, N26DS, we built up for David Steeber in 2005 or 2006, and was the fastest fully deiced Superstar that I have had and benchmarked. It would do 232 KTAS or better at 55% / FL250. The previous owner to Trey was not kind to it. Will be interesting to see if she still will pull those numbers. I know at one point in recent years it was not even close to those numbers .

I did have one that did not have boots that would seemingly do 238-242 ktas under those same conditions. I am not sure what the boots cost in cruise speeds statistically.

Here at Longmont near Denver (just over 5000 ft elev) , unless you are really heavy you should have your feet off the ground in a Superstar by 2100 feet or so on a typical warm day. The standard 700 gross weight of 6315 should keep you right about there. With the 6850 gross you will be approaching the 2600-2800 foot mark up here. Real hot and heavy should still have you right around 3100 feet or so in my experience.

Summer time in the 601P always seems real long with a shallow climb at gross.

Yes - I've looked at that one and it is very nice. Just need to do some more self educating first.

Thanks for the link.

Garth

I got to meet the owner of this aerostar once, he is a full on aerostar junkie. Think he always used master Aviation for maintenance. Did most of the modifications under his ownership, even waited in line to have one of the best aerostar paint shops (Desapi) paint it. I wish I would have known he was selling before I bought my 700, it would have been top of my list.