THE STORY - (IF YOU HAVE NAVAJO TIME, SEE QUESTIONS BELOW AND TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS)

My wife just laughs. I found a flexible woman who can roll with lots of change. Life is good.

Through an unusual set of circumstances, I purchased a 1978 Navajo Panther conversion from the government.

This plane has an interesting history. It was operated by the DEA (who heavily upgraded the airplane), and then later operated by a large Sheriff's office to transport prisoners (CONAIR).

To say government spares no expense is a bit of an understatement after reviewing the logs.

EVERYTHING firewall forward was replaced 130 hours ago, including the baffling. The mechanic who did the work (a very nice woman who should be proud of her skills) delivered a beautiful product (as you'll see in the photos).

The cosmetics were decent on the inside, and will be very nice on the outside. I am re-furbing the interior a bit with the first annual along with adding Bose jacks, USBs, a pilot controlled rear plug for pre-cooling with the ice box, and a few other gizmos.

The Equipment:

130 Hr SFOH 350HP - TIO - 540J2BDs (good grief these things idle smooth - like a car)
4 BLADE QTips
242 gallons of fuel with dual nacelle tanks
FIKI with Hot windshield, Hot Props, Full Boots (including the elevator horns)
Ice Plates
Long Range Color Radar - overlayed on the EX-500
WX500
XM Downlink
KGP560 TAWS - B - overlayed on EX-500 with audio warnings
TAS - 600 Traffic (adsb in upgradeable - I'm seeing N numbers now??)
430W Nav/Com #3
STEC 65
King Gold Crown Coms x 2 (sweet!)
KRA 10A Radar Altimeter
JPI-760
Shadin FF
Electric Air conditioning (can be run on ground off power cart)
Cabin Circ blower
Crew Door (awesome)
Cargo door (adjacent to air stair for wide opening)
VGs with strakes and fences
Clevelands
8 seats (configured for 6 plus potty)


Right now we are inspecting the airframe and trying to find at least one drop of oil on the engines. At every turn we are finding new info supporting what a well-equipped bird this is and how well the government can take care of their aircraft.

I am not sure what I am going to do. I own a fabulous Baron with some very desirable options, but I do have use for more room and turbos. This plane just squeaks into my hangar.

I have not flown it yet, but we did do a high speed taxi on the runway. Full power resulted in 80KIAS after 1,000'. She was flying - we just never left the ground. The passenger area is quiet (no headsets necessary) with the Panther conversion and I'm told it doubles the OEI performance at gross. After that initial ground run...YIKES!! I believe it. Better yet, it was a really hot day and even with ground runs, the CHTs and oil temps stayed cool.

So, I'll check in with progress and some flight tests. No decisions will be made until I put her to use for awhile. At the moment, I am hopeful it works out as this plane looks like a fire-breathing party bus.

QUESTIONS:

First, what are the gotchas? I can see from the fuel selector setup that you need to pay attention when switching tanks. The system seems simple outside of that.

The alternators are 70amp. With electric AC, I imagine 100+ would be nice. What is the best available upgrade?

What kind of performance should I expect? As with the 421, the answers will be all over the map based on ROP/LOP and speed preference - but its all good info for me.

What length fields are required at mid-weight and at gross in real life ops?

This beast seems pretty stout, and is setup up for all-weather ops. What kind of dispatch reliability should I expect with the airframe and engines?

Thanks in advance....and for all my Beech bros :duck:

I just knew you were getting a Navajo.......

Sounds like you landed a very good airplane. Larry O would be a good person to chime in on this.

Personally love the cabin size.

There goes the Baron

WOW!!!

Very nice. Let us know how she flies. Looks really great!

Baron for the short economy trips, the Navajo for the longer ones.

Stan Musick had a navajo and thinks highly of them.

Awesome! Can't wait to hear your op experience.

I like them Navajo's! Congrats! mini airliner!

That is a good looking airplane. Congratulations.

Jimmy Elza

Jesse that is awesome!
I love how the weather radar can overlay on the moving map.

Congrats to you !!

Beautiful, Jesse, Congrats!

Looks Awesome. I can't wait to hear about the real world performance numbers and would love to see some photos of the inside to see how roomy it is...

Kevin

Kevin,

Here is a pic of the interior before refurb.... You can see the AC rear vents on the cabin divider. It provides great flow throughout the cabin and there is a circ fan on the rear floor which can be felt from the pilot seat. Lots of air moving. I dig the crew door. Its cool to pop it open while taxiing in

The seats can be configured forward or club. In the rear seats facing forward, my knees had six inches of legroom and the high cabin provides lots of headroom (as you can see from the headrest height).

The headliner has been died and all of the plastic is being refurbed. (Second photo)

I dig the vertical profile too. The ceiling is FL240 so it will likely be a helpful tool.

Nice Jesse! There was a Navajo in a group hangar next to my Dad's V35 when I was in grade school growing up in Michigan. I used to climb around that beast and make airplane noises. Now maybe I can come up for a visit and take a trip down memory lane. Happy for you. I know you'll get full use of all it's capability and do it safely with style.

Steve,

You're on....as long as you give me a ride in that timepiece Vtail. Did I miss the thread on that gem?

Best,

Excellent choice my friend. . . did you start missing hte capability of the 421? Mission change again?