Aircraft N2396W Data

I owned N2396W for 15 yrs. It was a great bird, but needed upgrades that I could not afford. It had previous damage that had not been correctly repaired, but nothing major. The Musketeer with this engine (200 HP IO360 Lycoming) is a very substantial airplane. 4 adults and baggage no problem (1060# useful load). Performance cruise was about 130 mph and 10 gph. That could have been improved by adding a constant speed prop. Also, as this model is designed to carry a good load, it is inherently nose heavy when not so loaded. When lightly loaded, it helped a lot to throw a 40# bag of sand in the baggage area behind the back seat. That helped hold up the heavy nose without adding drag by doing it with elevator trim. Very few AD's were ever issued on this model. Pretty bullet proof bird, and not that much difference in performance capabilities than a 182. Flies circles around a 172. Happy flying.