Cessna 421C Golden Eagle

While I endure the tortuous wait for my Copeland paint job, I've been shopping around for a little tail dragger. The tail dragger will serve as a fun little hamburger hopper and occasional back country camping plane.  I probably wont fly it all that much, so it makes sense to partner on it.  I'm AOG for a few more weeks yet,  and one of the people I will partner with has a 421C.  We wanted to go see a little Champ we're looking at, so let's take the Golden Eagle!  Wow, what a plane.  I'd never been in one before so it was really cool to check it out, and his is just beautiful.

It really feels well built, and the air stair door and cavernous interior are super nice.  The panel is well equipped and similar to mine.

I'm spoiled now though by my GTN's.  I'd forgotten how slow all that knob twisting is on the 530W.  This is one well equipped plane though, full flight into known icing, pressurized, etc.  Pressure is so nice we were picking up ice at 15,000 and just hopped up to 17,000 no problem, no o2 to deal with and a comfortable and warm cabin altitude of only 4k feet.

There was a little bit of ice on the leading edge there but not enough to even warrant popping the boots.  We were about 10 kts faster than my Baron and were burning nearly twice as much gas so you do pay for it, but wow was it nice.  Pressurized, FIKI, air conditioning, potty... a pretty awesome cross country cruiser.

Overall the 421C is an awesome plane though and definitely a contender were I to ever upgrade.  The other thing that amazed me about the plane is how quiet it is.  The props are geared and in cruise they turn at just 1700 rpm.  It sounds almost like the engines are idling it's so quiet, you really don't even need a headset in the cabin.

Just a tiny bit painful at the gas pump