Bob Jackson is Vice President of Alexco - a Phoenix, Arizona, company that
produces high strength aluminum components for the aerospace industry. For
his closer-to-Earth travels, he flies a Cessna 310. Jackson recently had
Colemill's Executive II conversion
performed on the airplane and said he is extremely happy with the results.
"It has about 25 knots more cruise speed. I've got a whole lot more climb.
It's really great on short fields. Out here in the Southwest with our high
density altitudes in the summer months, that was always an issue with the
old engines. But with the 300 horsepower engines, it gives me an ample
margin. I don't have to struggle getting into the air or getting to altitude
like I did with the old engines. At five or six degrees pitch angle, I used
to get about 750 feet per minute. Now I'm getting about a thousand to twelve
hundred," Jackson said.
In addition to using his
Executive II for business, Jackson also
uses it for numerous volunteer flights - taking doctors to rural areas of
Mexico and flying blood and patients to various locations in the Southwest
United States. It's those kinds of flights, he said, that make him really
appreciate the improved short field performance and the higher single engine
service ceiling.
As a pilot Jackson has obviously noticed the
increased performance the Executive II
modification has given him. But he said it's interesting how other people
notice it also. He cited as an example a recent return trip to Phoenix one
night. "I had a little bit of a tailwind and was doing about 230 knots. I
called in and gave the controller the make of the airplane. He gave me a
squawk code and I started heading for the transition entry point. The
controller came back on the air and said something, but it didn't sound like
it was to anyone in particular. So I called back and said, 'Was that for Six
Charlie Whiskey?' And he said, 'What are you? What's pushing you along?' I
said, 'I can give you some more speed if you want it,' because I had it
throttled back pretty good. And he said, 'What?'."
Colemill's Executive II modification is
available for Cessna 310 I through Q models.
The conversion includes
Continental IO-550 300 h.p. engines, three blade props, and a Shadin
Digiflow fuel computer.
The modification can be performed in
approximately ten working days holding downtime to a minimum. So, you'll be
back in the air soon with an aircraft that will please you and maybe even
amaze some air traffic controllers.
