"Tri Pacer Pilot" wrote
I've looked at Cherokee 180s, Cessna 182s / 210s and am becoming more and
more interested in Navions. The popular culture says that they are well
(0ver) built and very stable and allegely easy to fly. I'm hoping someone
could help me with ...

How do they perform on the E185 Continental
Are the hydraulics hard to maintain or troublesome
Are there any major AD gotchas that I should be careful of
Would they be harder to fly than, say, a Piper Arrow in terms of being a
complex aircraft?
Are they certified in Normal and Utility catagories (ie, can they be spun
intentionally?)

I have my commercial and instrument ratings and about 500 hrs TT.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

I don't own a Navion, but I know someone who does. I've flown his,
and I've helped him work on it - but very little of both, so take this
with a grain of salt.

You will not have a problem flying it. Few airplanes are more stable
than a TriPacer, but this is one of them. It's a rock-solid
instrument platform - if you're only going to fly a little IFR, this
is perfect. I've safetied for the owner, who really doesn't fly all
that much, and I could sit there and watch him periodically fixate,
but the airplane is so stable and solid it just keeps going in a
straight line. There is no complexity to speak of, and nothing
happens very quickly. I've flown a Piper Arrow, and consider it to be
the second-easiest 'complex' airplane I've flown. The easiest? The
Navion.

The plane is VERY roomy. I've never been in the back seat, but the
front seat has more cabin room than a Bonanza. Two fat guys can sit
there in comfort. The control and instrument layout is haphazard, but
that's common for planes of that vintage. Ergonomics? What's that?

The E-185 engine is an orphan, and conversion to something else is NOT
cheap. Performance on the E-185 is actually OK - no worse than the
TriPacer in climb, and definitely better in cruise. Most people only
convert once the engine needs very major work and they discover how
difficult it is to get parts.

The downside is the maintenance. Unless you're planning to do a lot
of your own wrenching, stay away. Nothing is particularly
complicated, but everything is time consuming. There are two kinds of
Navion hydralic systems - those that are maintained by people who
really understand them (a distinct minority among A&P's these days)
and those that leak constantly and are nothing but trouble.

Michael