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