Cessna 340s

[Dave Siciliano]

Oral agreement reached on a 340.

[Tom Tyson]

Sounds good. Can’t wait to see it.

[Dave Siciliano]

Tom. Every time you visit my plane, you point out something that needs to be looked at !

[Bill Bridges]

Tom. Every time you visit my plane, you point out something that needs to be looked at !

That's a good thing.

[John O'Shaughnessy [FCM]]

Looking forward to hearing more about the new aircraft!

[Russell Holton]

Tom. Every time you visit my plane, you point out something that needs to be looked at !

Just as long as he doesn't point out the nut that holds the yoke.

[Tom Tyson]

Tom. Every time you visit my plane, you point out something that needs to be looked at !

“Looked At” = Not examined, but ADMIRED.

Shout if you are ever passing through or close to Burlington NC

Regards -TT

[Dave Siciliano]

Aircraft owners anonymous: hi folks, my name is Dave and I haven’t owned an airplane in 5 months!

[Ralph Jones]

Aircraft owners anonymous: hi folks, my name is Dave and I haven’t owned an airplane in 5 months!

Hi, Dave!

[Ray Tackett]

Similar to what Tom said, if come to a Philly area airport, lemme know.

Nicest place, OQN, but a ways out of town. PNE if you need to land in city limits. PHL only if excellent access to ground trans is a must. LOM -- fugheddaboudit unless you have a lot of excess money. Joisey side, TTN or RBV.

[Jeff Hartmann]

Dave, The 340 lives up to its performance numbers.
I just looked in my log 6-29-83, I flew a trip from Pahokee, FL (the home of Mel Tillis, as the sign says) to a grass ranch strip west of Vero Beach, Cessna 340 6829L. The airplane had been topped off (oh Crap), and I had 2 passengers...(both could have been middle line backers) who showed up with their wives... we were "at gross" . We flew 20 minutes to the strip, it was early , and they would be back soon. About 3 hours later, with the temps in the 90s (I had been running the plane occasionally for air conditioning)they returned. While I was waiting, I paced off the strip, about 3000 feet if I recall, with barbed wire fencing (arresting gear) to keep the cows out. Then I looked through the POH, and found (to my amazement) runway numbers for sod runways, not often seen in a POH. Ran the numbers and it said we were good. Grass runway info was for European certification.
So with the AC and good runway required numbers, I was sweating a little less.

I just looked up that N number, it is on a Comanche now... read an accident report where the 340 took out some wires, flew to another airport... maybe it wasn't repaired?

[Rick Durden]

Hoo Boy, Jeff,

You musta been heavy. The non-VG 340s with the big aux tanks and wing locker tanks can't put much in the cabin when full of fuel.

I sure liked flying them. Went out of the Cessna Delivery Center (Pawnee plant) in a 340A in the early 1980s - three people aboard, some luggage and full fuel. I ran a weight and balance and was able to carry two cases of Coors (figured 20 pounds each). Had the one person in the cabin sit in one of the rear-facing seats in the front of the cabin to stay forward of the aft CG limit on takeoff. Non-stopped to Ann Arbor, Michigan comfortably and fast. Once there I loaded five friends in the airplane and made a local flight letting each one fly for a bit.

Some good, memorable flights in 340s. Wichita to Morristown, NJ right at the beginning of the controllers strike - stop in Dayton, Ohio for fuel, then discovered that there was so much paint on the nose of the new airplane that the radar was worthless and there were thunderstorms around Morristown. All Morristown had at the time was an NDB approach. Landed in heavy rain, lowered the nose after touchdown and got on the brakes - nobody home - hydroplaning. Picked up the nose as high as I could. Once it came down we were below hydroplane speed and the brakes worked. Got stopped at the end of the runway. Heading back a few days later via Chicago, the shortage of controllers meant we were told that it would be at least three hours before we could get an instrument clearance to Chicago. Was able to depart VFR, climb to 16,500 and stay above some weather over the middle of the route to Chicago. Wanted to land at Meigs, but wasn't time to get fuel and depart before it closed for the night. Went into Midway, one passenger caught a cab to where he was going. Lineman gave the other guy with me and me a ride to a local hot dog place so we could get something to eat and then we had a CAVU VFR night flight back to Wichita. That was one great airplane for traveling.

[Jeff Hartmann]

No locker tanks... whew, that would have been really over. We were close +-.

I flew and pumped gas at Morristown mid 60s. (MXJ at that time) . A few years later I tried to get a job at the Cessna distributor there. He asked me how many Cadillacs I had sold. I said none, He said Buicks then? nope. He honestly said, we can teach anyone to fly... we need sales people with experience. Probably true.

I flew a trip (Pt.135) on the second day of the strike (let me go look)Nope 5th day. 8/10-11/81 C310 N35H, Had to pick up a bent prop shaft and "wheel" from a boat that ran aground near Brunswick, GA. PBI-SSI-TEB-LWM home via RIC SSI PBI. It was night and raining at TEB... What a pain trying to get a clearance to get past LGA on the way to Lawrence, MA. Sat out at the runway for at least an hour.. It was "interesting" to fly during that time.

Sorry Dave.... Back to C340s

[Dave Siciliano]

These are great stories. Don’t worry about the topic. Heck you’re still closer than a lot of stuff!

[Cole Loftus]

I'm looking forward to seeing that 340, Dave. I seem to recall that it's the same fuel system setup as the 310, with tips, aux (2 sizes), and locker tanks available. Fuel management has more than one gotcha, including the tip tank pumps and landing lights being on the same breaker, as I recall.