By Steve Havlir
My interest in aviation began at an early age. During his service in the Army, my grandfather flew smaller airplanes, including the L-19 Bird Dog, L-20 Beaver, and U-1A Otter. Other than that, my family’s aviation involvement was limited to hobbies, which I eagerly participated in.
I built rubber-powered balsa wood models and watched my brother build radio-controlled models. I visited Palwaukee Municipal Airport (now Chicago Executive Airport) to plane-spot and occasionally visited the EAA Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, where I participated in a Young Eagles flight in NC30340. I also spent many hours in flight simulators. I believe the benefits from simulator learning far outweighed the few bad habits I developed. (Who knew you actually have to keep backward pressure on the yoke after the mains touch?)
As is common, life got in the way, and my aviation hobby took a pause until my late thirties.
I completed my private pilot certificate (PPC) in September of 2023 at Texas State Aviation in San Marcos. My instructor, George, poked fun at me for being “just a weekend warrior,” even after I reminded him being a weekend warrior allowed me to pay him! I poked back by jokingly treating him like a passenger and making him wear his seatbelt all the way to the parking spot. I even printed out a big Fasten Seat Belts sign with the symbol seen in airliners.
For my instrument rating, I used the local Facebook group to find both a private instructor (Nathan) and safety pilots (Tyler and Brendan). Using my own, recently purchased, 1978 Cessna T210M Centurion came in handy as I never had to worry about maintenance or scheduling issues, and it gave me a consistent platform to memorize speeds and other performance numbers. It took about eight months to finish my rating.
The Family Cruiser and More
My main mission is to carry my family of five around the country and have adventures. It didn’t take long to figure out that it’s really hard to find an airplane rental for more than four people. All of the rental planes I’ve found in my area that are certified to hold six seats, have only four. Two seats have been removed to get better insurance rates.
My secondary missions include traveling between my work in Texas and my extended family in Illinois, building time for further ratings, and eventually qualifying as a pilot volunteer for organizations such as Angel Flight.
When I decided to buy, I asked the owner of my flight school to help me look for a plane. He told me it could take up to six months to find something that fit my mission. He called within a month. One of his former students was selling his Cessna T210M. It was well-maintained, had a low time engine at around 400 hours, and had most of the features I was looking for. Since it frequently traveled between Phoenix, Arizona, and Lockhart, Texas, the pre-buy inspection and purchase agreement were completed without any long-distance communications or travel.
I didn’t need to change much. It came with just about everything I wanted, including an electronic flight display, an engine monitor, a modern GPS, and all the requirements for being IFR certified. The one thing it lacked was an autopilot. Since Garmin doesn’t support Aspen PFDs, I installed (and am very happy with) the S-TEC 3100 installed by Pippen-York out of T82. An autopilot is almost a must have for my typical long-distance, single pilot, IFR with passenger missions.
What I’ve Learned
After some colder weather, I noticed that my nose strut was getting a little low. I called a mobile mechanic to fill it up with nitrogen. The fill valve is way up in the gear well and only one of the four guys had skinny enough arms to reach in, connect the hose and fill it.
A month or so later, I asked my flight school friend, Slade, to help me change the oil. We faced the same problem: the oil drain is way up in the gear well. We realized there had to be an easier way than reaching through that tiny opening. After a few hours of brainstorming, Slade suggested we find a way to open the gear door. Duh! We tracked down a maintenance manual. Sure enough, it clearly spelled out how to pull the gear circuit breaker and pump the gear extension handle with the master switch turned off.
When we finally got to the actual oil change, we made a mess. Initially, we didn’t know where to put the bucket to catch the draining oil and it ended up on the floor. While Slade took the used oil we managed to catch to the reclaim center, I finished putting the cowling on. I took inventory of my tools as I put them away. “Wrench, check, screwdriver, check. Uh-oh, where are my safety wire pliers?” I looked in all the tool boxes, the cabin, under the seats, my car, and next to the mechanical coin-operated horse left by the previous tenant. I took the cowling off again and looked in all the crevices it could have fallen into. Ten minutes later Slade came back and said, “Sorry, I accidentally grabbed your safety wire pliers.”
Future Plans
Texas summers are really hot, even when we climb to 8,000 feet. To make things worse, the big engine generates a noticeable amount of extra heat. I’ve survived two summers so far, but my passengers haven’t been keen on flying from May through September. After doing a bunch of research, I am ready to get an air conditioner. Unfortunately, the alternator isn’t beefy enough to support the upgrade – which means there will be a significant increase in the cost. I guess we’ll just have to climb all the way up to 12,000 feet next time!
All the existing AD’s had been resolved before I took ownership. Afterwards, I replaced the spot-welded v-band clamp to resolve the newer AD 23-09-09 inspection requirement. Those types of things were to be expected. I appreciate the FAA looking out for our safety.
Most of the parts I’ve had to replace were generic and easy to find. I’ve only had to replace one airframe part. The lap belt was fine, but one section of the copilot’s shoulder restraint was missing. I only noticed it when a potential safety pilot refused to fly with me until it was fixed (I think he just wanted a tour of my airplane since he was considering a 210 for his growing family. He never did fly with me).
I found the missing strap in a salvage yard listing on eBay. It even came with the N number of the original plane. Curiosity got the best of me, so I looked up the accident report. It was a fuel exhaustion incident and everyone was safe. I now refer to that seatbelt as the hero that may have saved someone’s life.
There are both good things and bad about this aircraft. One leaky fuel drain always seems to get grime in it, preventing it from sealing well. And it presents a few challenges. It is challenging for me to single-handedly maneuver such a heavy plane with a manual tow bar. It is challenging for mechanics to work in the tight engine space, crowded by the turbocharger. And it’s challenging for the passengers to stay cool. Oh, and I don’t love the insurance costs.
But, overall, I’m happy with my Cessna T210M. I love the useful load, the extremely roomy cabin, and how it is truly a great cross-country platform.
I fly about 75 hours a year. My fuel costs depend on how fast I want to go and how high I am willing to climb. The turbocharger will, theoretically, take me up to 24,000 feet — though I’ve never been that high yet. If I’m flying alone, the built-in oxygen tanks will last a while. If I’m carrying the whole family, it’s easier to stay lower and not have to worry about getting the cannulas on or where to fill the oxygen tanks. Let’s assume I’m flying at 10,000 feet. I can hold altitude reasonably well at 100 ktas (knots true airspeed) using 7 gph. I can cruise at 165 ktas using 13.5 GPH. Going any faster than that requires running rich-of-peak.
N888AB’s Former Life
Going through the logs was a little bit like being a historical archaeologist. N888AB wasn’t always N888AB. It started out life as N210RH and went through three owners and one engine overhaul from 1978 to 1997. And then something must have happened.
I was never able to find an accident report, but the maintenance logs make it clear the left wing was damaged and had some skin repairs at a certified repair station. It also received a new engine. There are still scratches on the left plastic wing tip, leading the pre-buy inspector to believe someone ran through vegetation. After this repair, the tail number mysteriously changed to N888AB.
Whether the owner was trying to hide the damage history or the registration naturally expired, I’m not sure. Either way, the sale happened. From 1998 to 2023, this aircraft went through four more owners, one more engine overhaul, and a major avionics upgrade.
Making Memories Together
One of our favorite day trips is to Port Aransas (KRAS). The four-hour car ride is now a 50-minute plane ride, and It’s only about a ten-minute walk from the airport to the beach. If you want to venture into town, you can rent a golf cart from a few different places.
The most memorable trip, so far, was our multi-leg trip from Central Texas to the Bay Area. My cousin, Jackie, was getting married in San Francisco so we decided to take a full vacation, with buffers on each end of the trip in case of delays. The first day, we fueled In Las Cruces, New Mexico then spent the night in Chandler, Arizona, across the street from the airport. Overnighting there was a bit of a fiasco. I was yelled at for thinking I could take an unmarked tiedown spot that supposedly belonged to a flight school, then laughed at when I asked for help moving the plane up an incline to a different tiedown spot. The next morning, there was still no airplane in the “unavailable” spot.
We departed for Livermore, California the following day while watching the weather very closely. I had researched all the possible diversion locations. After filing IFR, we departed uneventfully. Three hours later, as we neared our destination, the weather closed in around us from three sides. We flew the ILS approach in the bumpiest conditions my family (but not me) had ever experienced. At one point, the controller asked me for cloud bases. I responded we had somehow avoided all clouds so I couldn’t give an accurate report. Not five minutes after landing, the rain started.
We spent several days celebrating and sightseeing in San Francisco. Then, since the forecast called for icing over in Bakersfield (on our planned route), we stayed an extra day before heading home. Going through Chandler was a much more positive experience on the return trip! And the winds leaving Arizona were super favorable, at about a 40 kt tailwind, so we were able to skip the fuel stop in Las Cruces. It was a little gusty when we arrived back at our home airport in San Marcos. I had to do my first go-around in a very long time because something didn’t feel right when the mains touched. After tower confirmed the gear looked fine, we landed uneventfully. Would I do it again? Absolutely.
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