I hate to see you guys throwing rocks at the Aztec. They may not be pretty, fast or very comfortable but you will have a hard time finding any twin in its' class that is a better short-field performer. It is a good ol' solid and honest airplane that is a good instrument platform.
Wayne,
Second that in spades. There were times that I wished my Aztec were a 310 when I was going somewhere 20 knots slower than a 310 on the same fuel burn; however, I loved the useful load, the roomy cabin and the nose baggage compartment - it was easy to load within c.g. I was normally only carrying myself plus two or three, so we could take lots of stuff and fill the tanks and go a long ways.
On top of that, it was a pussycat on one engine and shot an ILS as if on rails. The short field ability was great to have many times, especially going into fly in breakfasts at little grass fields.
And going with reduced fuel and all the stuff you needed/wanted for camping at OSH? Loved it.
(Didn't like the maintenance, particularly on the hydraulic and electrical systems - you really had to work hard to get ahead of it and then stay ahead. Got stuck lots of places until we got all the gremlins out of those systems, previous owner was a 135 operator who did kinda sorta the bare minimum while making the logbooks look really good.)
Warmest regards,
Rick
