I Bought The CHEAPEST 421C In The World.

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I stumbled into a part-time gig flying 2 C421Cs four years ago right after I retired from the Airlines. I had been flying Airbuses for the last 15 years or so and it was quite a change. I came from a GA background but hadn't had either the time or money to fly a light airplane since the early 90s. It was an education, and a lot of fun, too. What a wonderful flying airplane! Light, balanced controls, superb visibility, predictable, responsive handling. A true joy to fly. It took some time to get back into the underpowered piston mindset, but the guys I worked were patient with a HUGE pool of knowledge and were very helpful. I don't claim to be an expert in the 421 but I'll pass along some of the collected wisdom of thousands of hours in type flown by my guys. First, forget all the performance numbers in the manual. This thing uses a LOT of runway. We used to fly out of a 2800 foot runway with trees at each end with one of the 421s which happened to have a Robertson STOL kit. This helped, but getting the thing to 120 knots over the trees on takeoff (which gave us a margin of 9 knots over Vyse of 111) was exciting with both engines turning and 1000 pounds under gross. The downside of those big, beautiful props? They produce a lot of drag if they're not feathered. I was advised that if I lost an engine early on takeoff to just feather the dead engine and secure it later. If not, just cut the good engine and land and fly it into something soft. Not how we're taught in flight school but good advice, I think. Second, those engines produce a lot of heat. In order to get the climb numbers Cessna publishes, they advise climbing at 120 knots. We never did this: the engines just get too hot. We usually climbed at 130 minimum, often 135 or 140 if it were summer. Climb performance takes a beating because of this. Third, because of this, we seldom operated this thing above 10,000 feet. For us, the beating the engines took wasn't worth it. They are VERY expensive to replace. I've gone as high as 13,000 to clear some weather and was light at the time, but climb performance was less than 500 fpm at 135 indicated, well below gross. And you never want to sit on the ground on a hot day awaiting takeoff. I was surprised to find no cowl flaps and watched the oil temps sitting right below redline. Very nerve racking. We babied these engines and they always made it to TBO when we would replace them regardless of compression, if only for the gearbox. Fourth, brakes. They seemed to be an afterthought in this a/c. Really terrible. We could get it stopped in under 3000 feet easily but you couldn't carry 120-125 to the fence. Like a lot of airplanes landing on short runways, once the field was made you needed to slow it below blue line-- there would be no single engine go around. The Robertson was better at this, obviously. Last: the gearbox. There was a lot written about this airplane in the 70s when operators were watching the gear boxes self-destruct. Come to find out this thing doesn't like zero-thrust. You either need the engine driving the prop or the prop driving the engine. It makes an unusual warbling noice that your experienced instructor will point out to you as you approach the flare; that's when it's time to chop the power and fly it on like a C150. You can avoid this by dragging it in but that takes some practice and it's easy to get too slow. We used to flight plan 50 gph and would get around 47 gph at 7 to 10 thousand feet, 185 to 190 TAS, 65% power. Nice and quiet, 2000 foot cabin. Get good training, maintain it well, fly it into 4000+ foot strips, stay current and you'll love this airplane. And take the cowling off regularly and have a look. You know about surprises.

I love, love, love my 421C, 1976 vintage. Yes, it is expensive, but it is worth it IMHO! I am a strange guy, minus the expense, I enjoy working on mine and watching it blossom. I have a G600 Autopilot in my near future. I currently have glass, G600TXi, GTN 750xi, GI-275, GWX-75 (Digital Wx Radar). Being a 35 year airline pilot, I wanted an airplane with some umph. People will say you are spending too much money, but when you look at the range, altitude capability, engine out performance, seats, etc., you know you have a very capable machine. It isn't an airliner, so be careful in icing, and make sure you are rested, it's a hot rod. Thank you for your wonderful videos, I love your enthusiasm and the quality of video productions! Much love coming from the West Coast my friend!!!

Congratulations on getting a 421! That is truly a timeless design of a GA twin, awesome plane.

Jimmy spends money like he’s printing it in the basement 💰 😂😅

Please, Jimmy go get some training at a reputable Sim class, I have a couple thousand hours in 421C,B,A. You won’t believe the difference flying in a pressurized cabin, how quiet it is, and you lose all sense of how fast you’re going unless you’re constantly looking at your airspeed in the pattern, straight in approaches are great, watch out for that turn from base to final, once you figure it out, it’s a awesome airplane, flew across the country many times in 421s, most as corporate trips, some charter, and a fair amount, part 91 for maintenance checks, make sure you thoroughly understand how the starters operate and how to start those engines when it’s hot. 421WC was my favorite, wish you luck with being the caretaker of your new project,

These are the kind of video's I love! Fixing and flying these planes..

Welcome back Jimmy this is what I like seeing what you do best...

Nice looking airplane Jimmy. Glad you have a very knowledgeable mechanic there to show you the pros and cons of purchasing a Cessna 421 Golden Eagle. The fuel tank issue Tony mentioned is indeed a big deal. This situation claimed the life of a friend of mine and two of his buddies. He was flying a 1975 Cessna 421 to the Bahamas for a nice weekend getaway. They found a fuel leak and thought it was coming from the fuel sump. A mechanic where they rented this 421 from replaced the sump valve and thought that fixed the problem. They flew the plane from South Carolina to Florida to refuel before heading off to the Bahamas. They arrived in the Bahamas with no problems. When they were getting ready to leave, he had the FBO there top off all the tanks. Apparently there was a fuel leak, but it was not caught on his preflight. Shortly after take off, the right engine caught on fire. He tried to turn the aircraft around, but the right wing melted off the airplane before he could complete his turn. The plane crashed into a heavily wooded area. It took first responders 20 minutes to get to the crash site. By then, the whole plane was engulfed in flames. There were no survivors. This happened 5 June 2018 in Rocksound, Eleuthera, Bahamas. The NTSB ruled the accident as pilot error because there was really nothing much left of the airplane for inspectors to investigate. Sorry to end on a sad note, but corrosion is a common problem on 421's that have the fuel tank behind the firewall. It sounds like you have a great mechanic there that is aware of the problem and knows how to correct it so the new owner does not end up like my friend and his buddies did in the Bahamas. I really enjoy your videos. Keep up the great work.

421s are great, but be very careful with the engines. You will like the smoothness and the quiet cabin thanks to the low RPMs…the RAM conversion puts on the winglets.

Hey Jimmy - I spent a lot of time maintaining a stable of twin Cessnas when I was a tech in the 90s. It might be worth making sure the fuel injection is set up correctly. There is a lengthy procedure in the maintenance manual that will ensure the fuel injection system is tuned properly and that the engines are matched. The 421 was one of my favorite aircraft to work on. The GTSIO-520s sound so sweet.

Wow Jimmy ! Nice bird ! The 421 is my second favorite 400 series Cessna 🤣😉 Can’t wait to check it out 👍🏼👍🏼

After being able to take a very large item off my bucket list, I’m am happy like a little Kid with a new puppy that you’re getting the 421c, it’s been a journey and not everything has went the way you planned, but you’re getting there, be careful,God Bless, really enjoy your channel

I love Jimmy’s World!

Nice Jimmy, I am just an air tanker pilot so a 340 is as high up the ladder as I’m going to go. You will love the plane as long as you can hang with the money. But if you have to ask….you probably can’t afford it. Have fun and be careful. The big twin Cessnas are a joy to fly! You are a rock star Jimmy!! I highly recommend Aircraft Simulator Training in Burnet Tx for your annual insurance mandated training. Rick and his crew are the best. Simulators are top notch.

Great purchase Jimmy, can't wait to see that bird in the air with you and the family!

Jimmy while you have the nacelle apart and the fire wall partially removed ask Tony if the crossfeed lines were replaced with stainless steel. There is a Service kit for replacing them. Years ago when they had all the exhaust problems there were several fatal crashes where an exhaust leak burned a hole in the firewall and they ruptured the aluminum crossfeed lines. There is no way to shut off those lines once they are ruptured. If there is a fire it will burn until all the fuel tanks are exhausted. By then the fire usually burns through the spar and the wing falls off.

Doing the YouTube thing and watching, liking and sharing. Cause Jimmy is AWESOME.

Beautiful. Listening to the experts, seems like a reasonable deal. Thanks for sharing with us.

Embraer 195 driver here… absolutely love the airplane! It really has mini airliner vibes. Would love to fly one one day