The Cessna U206G C-GYWQ

Cessna U206G C-GYWQ 

Another one of the aircraft I started out my career on was the Cessna U206G Stationair, 'YWQ'. Out of the three piston singles I flew @ Skyward, I liked the 206 the least. Nothing so much wrong with the model, just this particular airplane. It was the loudest out of the three, had a tendency to want to turn left, only one door to get in and out of, the radios were quiet, and it felt less stable. It simply wasn't as nice to fly. However, out of the three, it was probably the best equipped aircraft. First off was a Robertson STOL kit. This kit added wing fences and allowed the flaps to extend an extra 10 degrees. It also brought the ailerons down a maximum 16 degrees. All this increased the camber of the wing, allowing it to fly @ slow speeds therefore decreasing the length required for takeoff and landing (Hence STOL = Short Take Off and Landing). It also came with tip tanks, giving it an extra 30 gallons of fuel. The "U" model 206 stood for utility which basically gave it a 2nd "barn" door on the right hand side for easier loading. The panel was pretty basic, two VHF radios, two VORS, and one apollo GPS.

The 206 was powered by the very popular Continental IO-520, with a max horsepower rating of 300 horses. The IO-520 spun a three-bladed, constant speed, McCauley Propellor. We flight planned with a block speed of 120KTAS and a fuel burn of 100lbs an hour, although I'm quite sure it burned a little less (no problem here, Its always good to come back with more fuel in the tanks). With the tip tanks, YWQ held over 100 gallons of fuel, or about 630lbs. This gave it an endurance of around 6 hours and a range of about 720 NM. With the tip tanks, the 206 also increased it's max take off wieght 200lbs up to 3800lbs. It was very rare I was near max wieght in this airplane.

The 206 was an all around useful airplane. It did many charters, could take a load of frieght over 1000lbs, and given the STOL kit and the tip tanks, did special missions including caribou counts and off strip work into Lodges. I still feel the 206 is a great airplane, like a 172 on roids, just the one I flew had some glitches I didn't care for. Although Cessna discontinued production of the 206 in the 80's, in 1996 they re-introduced the Cessna 206H and a turbo charged version, the T206H. As a personal aircraft, if I was looking for a nice float plane and happened to have half a million dollars sitting around, I would seriously consider buying one.

Here are some photos showing the Robertson STOL kit


From the Side 


From the front 


From the back