Airplanes I'd Like

I love airplanes, and some day I'm going to buy one. In the meantime, I can plan what sort of airplane I would like.

Just like anything else, different types of airplanes are good at different things. So there are a few of my current favorites.

8KCAB - Super Decathlon - If I had to pick one plane, this would be it. It's a stick and rudder plane, and it flies honest. It's not a lot in the way of frills, but what you see is what you get. With big tundra tires and a standard gear configuration, this is the plane you can put down on a dirt strip somewhere.

It's a "knock around the patch" airplane, not suited for the family or for long hauls. But like I said, if I only had one choice, I'd like a weekend airplane to kick around the local area. Remember that the local area for a plane might be places within 100 nm or so.

T206 - Cessa Turbo 206 - This is a great family plane. Load up the wife and the kids and head off into the mountains. The turbo model of the 206 adds a whole new zip to the airframe. It's like sitting on a rocket heading into the wild blue yonder. And cargo? Up in Alaska they used to say that if you could get it through the cargo doors of the 206, you could fly it somewhere. That's an exaggeration, but the plane is a horse.

Speaking of Alaska, the T206 figures in a dream I have about touring Alaska. Alaska is truly bush country, and the T206 is a great plane to kick around the bush in. Sure, there are probably better -- the DeHavilland Beaver or Otter comes to mind -- but the 206 is ubiquitous And let's face it, the 206 is just an easy plane to fly. Sure the turbo complicates things a bit, but the 152-206 Cessna line basically are the same airplane.

Now we're moving into light plane IFR platforms -- planes to take you to far away places when the weather ain't so good. I have to admit I'm out of my depth here. There are so many good planes for long-range business flying. I have some experience in the Cherokee Six, and I like it. The fancier version, the Saratoga, would be a good airplane for visiting clients. Since this is a business market niche, there are a lot of players here I'd like to get some more experience in this market to form a better opinion. The T210 looks like an affordable and capable plane. In this region we start talking about things like known ice capability.

I'm not even going to get into twins.

New Honda Microjet - When we get into serious long range, bad weather flying, the new microjets are looking totally sweet. You get high crusing speed, high altitude, pressurized cabin, bleed air for de-icing -- it's all good The price might be right as well. For an airplane, that is! The microjet is one of the few truly new things to come out. The BRS on the new Sirrus is another truly new thing. In general, aviation looks the same now as it did 30 years ago That's a shame, because I would expected more progress in GA over that time period.