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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0536.PDF
536 FLIGHT, 15 Apnl 1%Q CESSNA CIRCUS ... Good points about the 175 are luxurious comfort, soundcontrol layout, excellent ground handling and a totally innocuous stall. Points which Lambert felt an owner would have to getused to are the piloting position, which feels at first to be almost standing up and the need to co-ordinate turns with rudder becauseof high lateral stability. At 70 per cent of its 175 h.p. the 175 cruises as fast as Flight's Gipsy Major Gemini, uses less fuel,carries a much greater load and flies farther—and is infinitely more comfortable and easier to manage on the ground. But we must addthat we have yet to find any American business aircraft with anything like the classical handling qualities of the Gemini atfavourable eg. position. Cessna 210 Next to the 170 series are the tailwheel 180,nosewheel 182 and the "super custom" Skylane which Cessna call "the mighty middle line." All three have 230 h.p. engines, a70 per cent cruising speed of about 160 m.p.h., maximum range of over 800 miles and a take-off run of 555ft. The tailwheel 180seems to be attractive mainly for its rather shorter landing run and greater suitability for utility or bush-type operations. Both the 170 and 180 series are traditional Cessna designs whichhave been modified for 1960 mainly by the addition of the splendid "flight/sweep" swept fin. Only the tailwheel 180 andthe little 150 now retain the traditional vertical fin. The 210, on the other hand, burst upon an astonished market some time lastyear and is still remarkable for its retractable nosewheel under- carriage and curiously down-turned wing-tips. From the pilot's point of view it is a very different aircraft fromany of the others. It has a hydraulic system for flaps and under- carriage, a rudder trimmer, fuel pressure-control for its direct-injection engine and cooling gills which have to be set for take-off, climb and cruise. It also has rather greater capacity for radio andadditional systems. It is little bigger or heavier than the others but much faster and has greatly improved handling characteristics—which one might expect from a more recent design. Under- carriage retraction is very quick and neat and the cover doors closewhen the gear is down, leaving no gaps or openings. The aircraft we flew was one of the prototypes which is makingan extensive European tour. It is fitted with Narco Mk 5 VHF, Sun-Air HF and Lear ADF. The Continental IO-470-E iscontrolled by throttle, pitch and fuel-pressure plungers (the latter The 210 cockpit with fall Mind-flying panel, ADF, VOR and VHF Hydraulics are below the vernier engine controls in the centre. Most of the switches are push-pull knobs and the instrument layout appears virtually standard in all Cessna types replaces the usual mixture corrector); all are vernier controlswhich can be released to slide freely by pressing a button in the head of the plunger. A useful feature of the 210 and other Cessnatypes is a knob on the panel which, when pulled, causes the fuel filter cup to drain to atmosphere and thus eliminate any accumu-lated water from the lines without one having to open the cowling The two 32 US gal tanks in the wings must be separatelyselected and fuel pressure should be set to the correct value for a given height or r.p.m. setting, appropriate values for per cent ofcruise power being marked on the fuel pressure-indicator dial but more accurately calculated with reference to outside air tem-perature by means of the circular slide rule, supplied with the aircraft. The ventilators, heater, reclining seats and headrests,ashtrays, even oxygen plug-in points and so on make the 210 no less plush than its brothers, but the rather larger instrument panelrises higher and forward visibility is not quite so good as in the smaller types. The hydraulics, witli controls in a neat consolebetween the pilots, are carefully arranged so that the wheel-shaped undercarriage lever must be pulled out and pushed against twodistinct stops to operate the undercarriage in either direction. It clicks back to neutral when the operation is complete. Theaerofoil-shaped flap lever is spring-loaded to return to neutral and the flaps can be inched to any degree of extension. A telescopichandle can be extended from beneath the panel for manual opera- tion of the hydraulics, but it can be moved only when hydraulicreservoir-pressure has been dissipated. The fuel selector and trim controls are on the floor between the pilots. Engine starting is routine, and on the ground the 210 is stable,smooth and quiet. The rudder pedals are rather more loosely spring-connected to the nosewheel so that more than gentle turnsrequire use of the toe-brakes, but the latter again are light and extremely effective. Lambert found the vernier throttle a pleasantmeans of controlling power both on the ground and in the air. It might be a question of taste, but he thought it would beparticularly handy to use, for instance, during a long power-on approach. Pugh wasn't quite so sure; he found it hard to strikea balance between over-sensitive push-pull action and furious rotations for smaller adjustments. But the three vernier controlstogether do allow extremely precise setting for cruise control. When we climbed into the 210 the ceiling was still about 700ftand visibility on the approach was less than a mile. Cloud-top was reported as about 5,000ft, so we decided to use VHF and radiocompass to climb above it, make a few tests and do a radio compass let-down. Lambert had the first go and took off to fly for a fewminutes below cloud to get the feel of things. He noticed imme- diately, as Pugh did in turn, a surging acceleration on take-off anda very steep climb at about l,400ft/min. The nose was so high that the climb was virtually made on instruments and he had tolevel off smartly to avoid entering cloud. It was at once apparent that the 210's controls were muchbetter co-ordinated than those of its predecessors. Although lateral stability remained high, use of rudder alone produced asmooth progressive bank and, although a very useful rate of roll was available, the wings would remain level for minutes on endduring hands-off flight. Co-ordination of turns with rudder was much easier and lighter than with the 175 and the control forcesin general seemed to be a fraction lighter. With a cruising power setting of 2,200 r.p.m., 22in manifold pressure and 71b/sq in fue'iniector pressure the speed readily built up to 156 m.p.h. Through- out the flight Lambert could not quite accustom himself to flyingat such speeds in a high-wing aircraft—a reaction which surprised him. Visibility in turns was about as good as that in the 175. Full flap can be extended at about 100 m.p.h. and with abouttwo-thirds flap Lambert trimmed the 210, power off, at 60 m.p.h. Elevator trim is low-geared but can be exactly set; we boththought highly of the proportional quality of this control. Lambert then applied full power hands off, and established that the strongnose-up tendency could be held quite comfortably and that— despite the great drag of the flaps—some 200ft/min of climb wasstill possible. Raising the flaps caused no apparent sink. Until now we had been rushing around below cloud in theavailable 700ft of murky airspace and using the Lear ADF to criss-cross over the western locater beacon for the Blackbushe O8runway. We decided now to climb through cloud, starting east- wards from Blackbushe; but before going up Lambert loweredfull flap, closed the throttle and tried to simulate that precipitate Para-Lift approach. Before we had established ourselves in thedescent we were well into a Stuka attack on the control tower, so The 210 has an excellent turn of speed and is pleasant to fly. Clean underside and braced wing with turned-down tips give it a distinctive appearance in flight
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