I just purchased this very airplane (1979 T210N, non-FIKI w/ intercooler) about four months ago. I have a Sandel 3308 HSI, S-TEC 55, GNS 430W, MX-20, and GTX 330 in the panel. It's worth noting that this was my first owned airplane, so I learned a few things during the process that prior owners would probably take for granted.
Let me start by saying that it is a fabulous airplane, and after owning it for a few months, I feel completely validated in choosing it for trips around California and beyond. I recently traveled from California to Oklahoma, and found it to be a very comfortable and satisfying IFR platform. I was more familiar with and looking at the T182, but chose the T210 for the little bit of extra speed. I would do it again in a second.
Some things to look out for:
- I haven't had any problems with the gear. Look for hydraulic leaks on preflight. Check the reservoir more often than Cessna suggests. There's a standpipe in the reservoir that leaves you with a reserve to manually pump the gear down in the event that your power pack drains the reservoir, but it won't protect you against all leaks. I am planning to replace all the hoses next annual, as they haven't been done in quite some time.
- As far as I know, the 1979 model is not very prone to gear saddle issues - this is mostly those models produced in the 1960s. However, the later models do have a service bulletin for pivot cracks, which you may wish to consider.
- If your airplane still has a plastic nose gear spring guide, get it replaced with the steel part before your nose gear collapses.
- There is an AD to test for exhaust system leaks which has to be completed every 50 hours. If you have a Knisley exhaust, that interval increases to 100 hours.
- The hydrostatic test on the oxygen bottles is often missed. You probably have four small oxygen bottles in the ceiling of the airplane, and it's several hours of labor to get them in and out. If you have steel bottles, they have a 5 year inspection and no lifetime limit unless they fail. If you have kevlar, they do have a lifetime limit, and may need replacement soon.
- If you have the original Cessna fuel caps, get rid of them before they kill you.
- If your airplane is higher time (5000 TT IIRC), there's a wing spar AD which requires a recurring eddy current inspection.
- Mentioned in the buyer's guide, but if your airplane is advertised as FIKI, make sure it has dual vac pumps, pitot heat, stall warning heat, wing boots, tail boots, hot prop, and hot plate on the windshield. All of these are required for it to legally retain the FIKI certification, and very expensive to replace.
- Insurance will cost you big bucks if you don't have much time in type.
Things I did that were worth every dollar:
- Join the CPA, purchase John Frank's buyer's guide, read it from cover to cover, and then have your A&P use it for the pre-buy.
- The CPA is the best $45 I spent during the whole process. In addition to being a great place to ask questions, there is over a decade of posts in their forum from Cessna 210 owners. Reading through old posts is a great way for you to discover just about every problem that anyone has ever had with a Cessna 210, how they fixed it, and what their woes were with parts availability.
- For your pre-buy, make sure that you use an A&P that's familiar with the Cessna 210. It has a lot of quirks and a lot changes between model years.
- My plane had a current annual, but for the pre-buy, I had a complete annual done by a new A&P. This turned up about $2k worth of small discrepancies and a few stale inspections (including mags and oxygen bottles). More importantly, it turned up that the airplane needed to comply with the calendar limit of the Superior cylinder AD. Though widely regarded as bogus, this would have cost me $10k if it had been missed.
Things I would do differently if I were doing it again:
- Be absolutely meticulous about going through the logbooks, 337s, etc. Educate yourself enough to take an active role in doing that. My A&P did a logbook review, but he did miss a couple of things that were incorrectly signed off by prior A&Ps.
- Thoroughly flight test all of the avionics - there were some autopilot eccentricities that cost me a bit to fix. They would have been easily detected.
- Familiarize yourself with book performance and verify it in flight. I have a number of drag devices on my airplane that detract a few knots, and I would have liked to know that in advance. This can also help indicate if the airplane is out of rig.
Good luck, you will love it!
If nothing else, I've learned a lot for next time that will be incredibly useful whether I go certified or experimental.
