[LifeisGood]

After that claustrophobic comment I checked a few stats. The Baron has a 42 inch cabin width compared to 46.5 inches for the 340A, I am not sure why, but the 340A just seems much bigger inside to “me”. Probably because I can move front to back in the cabin. Anyway, rubbing shoulders with someone the whole trip is not for me. I also checked useful loads and most 58P’s seem to have 1625# to 1750# useful load. With 180 gal of fuel this leaves 545lb to 670lb remaining, or about 3.5 standard people. What probably happens is 3 people and baggage, or 4 people and over-gross lightened up by a load of optimism because you’ve got a great plane. A 340A usually has a 1900lb useful with the same 180 gal fuel load gives one more seat. With my family I can honestly fly full fuel and five seats, which is my mission profile. As for as the baggage in the nose thing, I am not sure about that comment, the 340A CG is wide and comfortable. At FL200 I true out at 205 kts at 36 GPH fuel flow and enjoy the ride. There are always tradeoffs, they are both fine planes.

Also, since we are talking about it, I rarely fly at full gross wt. and when I do I choose my airfields carefully so that engine out on takeoff issues at least partially dealt with. The single engines performances numbers on a Cessna 340A with the Ram VI are considerably better then the 200fpm on the 58P at gross with an engine out.