Skymaster safety record: Engine Failures?

[Mark Hislop]

Bruce:

I can't add much more than Kevin's fine post. However, I would like to state that there is nothing wrong with the Skymaster design that would cause them to have more engine failures than any other aircraft. The claim that the rear engine always runs hot is largely an old wives tale. Some think that the Continental 360 isn't a very robust engine, but there are a lot of them out there on many types of aircraft, and if properly cared for, they are very reliable. As a matter of fact, I think they are more reliable that today's big bore (520's and 550's) Continentals.

I think you may have gotten an erroneous conclusion from the engine failure thread. Yes, there have been failures, but no more and no less than other aircraft. And an engine does fail, the CLT makes the failure much easier to deal with.

Mark