My neighbor has a Partenavia P68, albeit with the conventional nose. Cramped cockpit - not fun twisting and stretching to get into the front seats. The passenger seats are pretty good. Performance-wise, it’s about like his previous plane - a Piper PA-32 Lance. The Partenavia isn’t a bad plane at all, but is definitely a light twin. It’s maybe in the same class as a Seminole.
The observer nose came after the original version. Originally the two rear windows were oversized to allow observation, on some the windows could be opened or removed really not a great idea though, as the folks in the back are ideally suited to get all the noise and airflow off the engines.
On one flight the rear intercom jacks on both sides failed and the folks in the back, no matter how hard they shouted could not be heard from up front, necessitating a very frustrating return.
On another while I was in the back the same thing occurred which resulted in a very pleasant flight of me being paid to do absolutely nothing but enjoy the view.
The observer nose didn't sell well, basically being sold to government operators and eventually passed on to private hands, so there are more with the original nose than without.
P68 was the first multi engined piston i ever flew and went bsck tonit a few years later. Did enjoy, objectively a pain in the ass. You have to do an awkward crawl/swivel to get under the spar into the front and i was never particularly confident that one could go out the other way quickly if needed.
Lost flights and later money because the access to refuel is poor and if the cap is stuck you can't easily get any leverage to get it off, but I did some very fun things in them.
This bird is so cool because both the pilot and copilot can look *down* past their feet!
Add some bubble windows and the rear passengers can look down too.
But yeah if the job is to fly low and get distracted looking down that’s not to the safest thing in the long run.
No worries. There are a few. Getting stuck in Germany, sleeping in the cabin because of an engine issue. Good food and camping under the wing after flying a few people out to a barbecue. Low flying with observers in the back, keeping a visual reference with seaweed. Taking it to airshows with good people. Couple of shenanigans.
It wasnt a good aircraft, but it was good to me.
Nope. It has a panel, but the panel is mounted on a helicopter-style console. Most planes have dash-mounted panels. Afaik it's still called that in a plane. After all, it's not like a Ford Fiesta uses the thing for shielding the driver from a horse
I didnt fly the observer version but the P.68 is one of the worst airplanes ive ever flown.... but that might have been that particular example, ive only flown the one.
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