Silvaire wrote:
If I were to buy a 200 HP retractable, I would prefer a Lycoming four cylinder engine over the 6-cylinder Continental used on the SR20. I like simple and robust. Candidates that come to mind are the aforementioned Mooney M20E, F and J and the Cessna Cardinal RG, which other than the landing gear complexity has a lot going for it in terms of comfort, payload and GG range, as well as appearance.
I would advise the same to anyone who is not sensitive to SR20 chute or fixed gears, I have flown C, F, J Mooneys on steam & glass and last year a full glass Cardinal all are stable IFR platforms: M20C, M20F & Cardinal have good climb rate to punch up through the layer and take on grass, M20J is slick and go stable and faster than anything with 200hp in certfied or 4-seat RVs !
Ibra wrote:
M20C, M20F & Cardinal have good climb rate to punch up through the layer and take on grass, M20J is slick and go stable and faster than anything with 200hp in certfied or 4-seat RVs !
Last weekend a friend and I launched in his RV-8 just behind a friend in her Cardinal RG. We were surprised that while the RV climbed faster and caught up, it was a longer process than we expected. Maybe she was using max power, we were in cruise climb but anyway it was a good comparison and the Cardinal did OK.
I also enjoys every hour of flying the Cardinal that I used to fly. It is a very stable and nice aircraft. A low hour Cardinal would be a very suitable platform for an all glass IFR upgrade in my mind.
+1 for the Cardinal! I have a couple of hundred hours in these birds and they are really great low(ish) budget touring machines. Flown them all over Spain and Morocco.
Certain SN Cardinals have landing gear that is just a nightmare from start to finish, and part numbers that read “unobtainium” on a search. They seem to end up on their belly a lot more so than 210’s or 182RG’s from what I’ve known. It’s probably because the Cardinal finished in 78 and they went on to improve the RG system in later years. I think SN 0488 was the point where the 182RG’s got the better system with heavier pivots etc and they were all 28v A/C.
Our Cherokee 260 with the two back seats out would make a serious 4 seater! Thinking mans Dakota in my mind.
