On force big date, NTSB got merely a couple of Cougar injuries in documents towards prior eight age

That jet aashed on the Corpus Christi Bay, destroying all somebody aboard, during every night team airline in may 1980. The jet is actually never recovered, and the possible factor in the new crash remains undetermined. One other accident occurred in November 1982 from inside the Nebraska. The brand new Cougar is actually on an air taxi flight which have two people on-board whether or not it struck trees and you will crashed inside a good meadow throughout a great VOR method. The latest crash took place to your a dark colored evening with a great 2 hundred-foot, obscured threshold and you can six4enths of a kilometer profile in fog and drizzle. The fresh new airplane pilot sustained small wounds; his passenger is murdered. NTSB concluded that the Cougar got fell underneath the authored minimum ancestry height for the means and you will ended up being hiking in the event it smack the trees.

A check of FAA’s ideas found seven events into the earlier 7 many years. You to Cougar paid and you may hit the props towards an effective runway when the fresh pilot retracted the apparatus to the takeoff; nevertheless the wreck are slight, therefore the airplane pilot was able to bring brand new airplane doing and you can home. Another jet was not aligned towards the runway in the event it touched upon an exercise flight, and it also crushed-looped and you will struck an effective VASI light. One to event inside it good Cougar you to taxied into the various other plane once being hand-propped. A cracked technology-doorway hinge avoided the fresh new kept head hardware out of locking on a single airplane; the equipment collapsed into the getting, resulting in minor destroy.

If that will be happen, current holds regarding parts to possess Cougars you may run dry easily

Other Cougar produced an uneventful solitary-motor getting while in the an exercise airline in which a propeller create maybe not leave its feathered position. The very last incident plus with it a single-engine obtaining; brand new pilot had power down their kept motor after a cracked hooking up rod punched an opening on crankcase.

There are no wounds neither destroy when other Cougar had an effective done electric inability on the takeoff once being diving started owed so you’re able to a dead electric battery

Expertise redundancy-and peace of mind that comes of having two alternators as well as 2 pneumatic pumps if you find yourself shuttling on in the evening or perhaps in weather-most likely is the better reasoning to adopt to acquire a light dual. And the Cougar seems to render loads of shag having the brand new buck inside admiration. Compared, its stronger contemporaries, the fresh new Duchess and Seminole, just are not appearing to include an adequate edge on the overall performance so you’re able to suits their highest buy, performing and you can maintenance costs. However, brand new Cougar was a plane in limbo. Even though customers paint an effective rosy image of newest fix need and you will can cost you, you to picture could alter. There is no way of advising when the and in case Gulfstream Aerospace have a tendency to switch off supporting the orphan planes. And although the newest Cougar enjoys attained an excellent reputation of their docile dealing with functions, its abilities on one engine is not any top (and perhaps, worse) than any almost every other white twin.

For people who clean elbows with Cougar cognoscenti for enough time, you are bound to tune in to of just how therefore-and-very shot to popularity, circled the brand new development and you will landed using only one motor. . Such as reports, no matter if genuine, eliorate this new exposure to high risk you to definitely an effective airplane pilot of any piston twin try confronted with anywhere between elevator-out-of and 50 ft above the runway. Potential buyers need to keep at heart you to definitely an engine inability towards the lift-away from would require flawless pilot dabble profile approach and you can end up in meager go up results. Ergo, a possible buyer was wise to weighing options redundancy up against the brand new relative merits away from a sophisticated single, including a keen A36 Bonanza or Centurion of the identical vintage, and this pricing comparable toward used business however, travel reduced, burn faster fuel and you will bring rnore payload. But, if you only have to possess a light dual, the newest Cougar indeed is worth a closer look.