Cessna T210M/N Turbo Centurion II (1977-1984)

The specifications on this page describe the Model T210N (1979-1984), which is 1,943 of the 3,325 serials in Sections XIV and XVI of FAA TCDS 3A21 — 58%. That is a thin majority and it is said out loud, because the difference matters: the 1977-1978 T210M is a 3,800 lb airplane and this frontmatter carries 4,000 lb. The T210M has its own row in the Variants table.

The T210M and T210N are the last and most capable Turbo Centurions before the 1985 T210R. The Continental TSIO-520-R is rated 310 hp for a five-minute takeoff and 285 continuous, and from 1979 the T210N carries a 4,000 lb takeoff weight — 200 lb above the T210M and the highest of any 210 except the T210R and the P210R.

Counted from the certificate: 1,382 serials for the 210M/T210M (1977-1978) and 1,943 for the 210N/T210N (1979-1984). 3A21 issues one sequence for the normally aspirated and turbocharged airplanes together, so those figures include the 210M and 210N and are quoted that way rather than split on a guess.

Production ran to 1984 on this page, not 1986. The T210N's last eligible serial is 21064897, a 1984 model. Serial 21064898 begins the T210R — a 325 hp TSIO-520-CE airplane at 4,100 lb takeoff weight, on a wing extended two feet to 38 ft 10 in, with 87 usable gallons standard and 115 optional. The 1985 and 1986 Turbo Centurions are T210Rs and this catalogue has no page for them.

Known icing, and it arrives with the T210N

3A21 records this separately from the model sections:

Compliance with ice protection has been demonstrated in accordance with FAR 23.1419 ... when ice protection equipment is installed in accordance with the airplane equipment list (Models P210N, T210N, P210R, and T210R only).

The T210M is not on that list. Cessna Flyer puts it the same way: "The T210N was also the first single, along with the P210N, to be certified for flight into known icing (FIKI) conditions." That is a genuine mission difference between the two variants on this page, and it is one reason a buyer choosing between a 1978 T210M and a 1979 T210N is making a real decision rather than picking a model year.

The TSIO-520-R

3A21 rates it 310 hp for a five-minute takeoff at 2,700 rpm and 36.5 in. Hg, and 285 hp for all other operations at 2,600 rpm and 35 in. Hg. Cessna Flyer describes the same thing — "a takeoff power rating of 310 hp (2,700 rpm with a five-minute limit)" — and notes the engine is commonly retrofitted into earlier T210s under an STC held by RAM Aircraft.

Against the T210K/T210L's TSIO-520-H, which 3A21 rates a flat 285 hp for all operations, the gain is 25 hp and only for takeoff. In the cruise the two engines are certificated at the same power.

TBO 1,400 hours. Cylinder management remains critical; head temperatures above 380°F shorten cylinder life quickly, and the engine has no factory intercooler.

The 4,000 lb gross weight

Section XVI states three weights for the T210N and they are not the same number:

*Maximum Weight 4000 lb. takeoff and flight 3800 lb. landing 4016 lb. ramp

A T210N may take off at 4,000 lb and must land at 3,800. The catalogue's max_gross_weight_lbs holds the takeoff figure, which is what AOPA's "4,000/3,800 lbs." column also states, but the landing limit is the one that constrains a heavy short leg — 200 lb, about 33 gallons, has to be burned or left behind.

With AOPA's 2,221 lb standard empty weight the useful load is 1,779 lb, which Cessna Flyer's quotation of the airplane's own Information Manual independently brackets at "between 1,729 and 1,785 pounds". Working the real loadings against 89 usable gallons:

Six adults and 76 gallons is a genuine load, and it is the reason this airplane is talked about in the same breath as a light twin.

Every figure below is from FAA TCDS 3A21 Rev. 50. All airspeed limits in this section are INDICATED, not calibrated.

The bold row is what the frontmatter describes. Three things to read off it:

• The T210M is 200 lb lighter on the certificate. Same engine, same fuel, same six seats, but 3,800 lb against 4,000 — and its useful load is correspondingly smaller. A T210M scored on this page's frontmatter is being credited with payload it does not have, which is why the Variants table carries its own gross weight and why the page says so at the top.
• The T210M's own two blocks split almost exactly in half — 700 airframes against 682, 51% to 49% — differing only in flaps-extended speed (105 against 115) and gear-extended speed (140 against 195). Runbook rule 23 takes the lower figure on a majority that thin, which is why the table shows the early T210M at Vfe 105.
• Fuel falls from 89 to 87 usable at serial 21064536. 3A21 NOTE 1 explains it: unusable fuel rises from "6 lb. at (+23)" to "18 lb. at (+38)". 1,581 of the 1,943 T210N serials (81%) are in the 89-gallon block, so 89 is stored.

Against its neighbours

The cruise, burn and range on this page now come from the airplane's own Pilot's Operating Handbook. The document is the 1982 Model T210N POH, P/N D1227-1-13PH, Revision 1 of 16 December 1981. It covers one model year of a run this page spans from 1979 to 1984, which is said here rather than glossed; the T210M (1977-1978) is a 3,800 lb airplane and is a Variants row.

The stored 205 knots was wrong and is now 193. The fastest number anywhere in that handbook is 204 knots, and it is "maximum speed at 17,000 ft" — not a cruise figure at all. The fastest row in the whole twelve-sheet cruise grid is 193 KTAS. 205 described no flight this airplane can make, and it had been carried since the April 2026 generated pass.

The one flight this page describes

Read the altitude before comparing this to anything. A turbocharged airplane publishes its cruise where a normally aspirated one cannot go. The normally aspirated 210N is quoted at 6,000 ft and 171 knots; putting 193 beside 171 without the altitudes attached compares two different flights. At 10,000 ft — where the 210N is genuinely competitive — this handbook gives the T210N 176 knots at the same 80% power.

Why 80% and not the usual 75%. GAMA's convention, and this catalogue's, is 75% power at a stated altitude. Cessna headlines this airplane at 80%, and 80% at 20,000 ft is the only setting at which the handbook publishes a speed, a burn AND a range together. The house rule forbids writing a power setting the document does not state, so 80 is stored. For a reader who wants the comparable figure, Figure 5-8 Sheet 10 gives 75% at 20,000 ft as 184 KTAS on 16.5 gph — and AOPA's fact sheet independently prints 16.5 gph as this airplane's average burn at 75% power, which is a second document agreeing on the same cell.

Why the economy row is 60% and not 65%. The cruise grid does publish a 65% row at 20,000 ft — 170 knots on 14.3 gph — but the Range Profile chart steps 80 / 70 / 60 / 50 and publishes no 65% range at all. Completing a 65% economy row would have meant inventing its range, so the row is anchored at 60%, the nearest setting the handbook publishes all four figures for.

A fuel-quantity caveat that is real and small. The Range Profile sheet used here is the 522 lb one, and 522 lb is 87 usable gallons — the late serial block, S/N 21064536 and up. This page stores 89 usable because 81% of the T210N run carries it. So the 715 nm describes an airplane with two gallons less than the page's own tank figure. Scaling the published range up to 89 gallons would be arithmetic dressed as a source, so the published number is stored and this paragraph exists instead.

What the handbook corrected besides the cruise speed. Best angle of climb is 82 KIAS, not the 72 the page carried; best rate of climb is 100 KIAS (97 at 24,000 ft), not 96, which is the normally aspirated airplane's number. Takeoff ground roll is 1,300 ft, not 1,110 — a 17% understatement — while the obstacle distance of 2,160 ft replaces 2,270 and matches what Cessna Flyer quotes from the 1979 Information Manual. Best glide at 4,000 lb is 88 KIAS, which the page had right all along.

The stall speeds moved, and it is worth knowing why. The page carried 57 / 67 from AOPA. Those are the handbook's rearward-CG figures stated in KCAS, and Section 1 of the POH headlines the same pair. Figure 5-3's most-forward-CG KIAS column — the conservative case, and the convention this catalogue set on the 172N — gives 58 clean-configuration and 74 flaps-up. The clean stall is seven knots higher than the spec sheet suggests, which is exactly the sort of gap between brochure and book that matters on a short final.

Where the handbook and AOPA disagree on weight

AOPA's 1979 column gives a 2,221 lb standard empty weight and a 1,779 lb useful load. This 1982 book gives 2,237 / 1,779 for the Turbo Centurion and 2,303 / 1,713 for the Turbo Centurion II, both computed from the 4,016 lb ramp weight rather than the 4,000 lb takeoff weight. Three model years and a good deal of standard equipment separate the two airplanes, so this is a real difference rather than an error in either document. The page keeps AOPA's pair because it is the one that reconciles against the stored 4,000 lb gross weight. Cessna Flyer, quoting the 1979 Information Manual, gives "an as-delivered useful load of between 1,729 and 1,785 pounds", which brackets both.

The whole cruise grid and both climb tables are stored

data/vault/performance/cessna-t210m-n.cruise.json holds all twelve sheets of Figure 5-8 — 2,000 ft to 24,000 ft, 227 rows, standard-temperature column — and .climb.json holds Figure 5-6 and both sheets of Figure 5-7. That is what lets this site answer "what will it burn at 16,000 ft at 65%" from the chart (14.2 gph at 164 knots) instead of from a guess.

The airspeed limits are INDICATED, and that is new

3A21 Section XVI heads the T210N block *Airspeed Limits (IAS) and prints knots alone with no miles-per-hour column. The earlier turbo 210 pages carry certificate figures on a calibrated basis with that fact recorded; this generation is where the certificate switches, and the stored _kias values are genuinely what the schema field says they are.

AOPA makes the same switch at the same airplane, printing "203 KIAS" for the 1979 T210N against "196 KCAS" for the 1970 T210K.

The T210N is three knots faster on the redline than the normally aspirated 210N — 203 against 200 — and one knot higher on Va at 130 against 125. The page previously carried 200 / 170 / 131, which was wrong in all three: 200 is the 1960 Model 210's miles per hour never-exceed, and 170 and 131 appear nowhere in Section XVI.

Gear speeds

165 knots to operate the gear and 203 knots with it extended — the gear may be down at the never-exceed speed, which is unusual and useful. The 1977 T210M is limited to 140 knots both ways and the 1978 one to 140 operating and 195 extended. The catalogue has no vlo/vle field, so the limits live here.

The runway distances, and the defect that used to be here

This section used to warn that landing_ground_roll_ft: 765 and landing_over_50ft_ft: 1500 were shared verbatim with three sibling 210 pages and — for the 765 — with a 7,255 lb Daher Kodiak, and that they were therefore placeholders. They are not placeholders. They are the published figures, and the reason the 210 pages share them is that Cessna publishes the same landing chart for the 3,800 lb normally aspirated airplane and the turbocharged one, which lands at the same 3,800 lb. Figure 5-11 gives 725 / 1,440 ft at 0°C and 780 / 1,520 at 20°C; Section 1's 765 / 1,500 is the standard-day figure between them. The Kodiak sharing 765 remains a real defect — on the Kodiak's page.

Conditions, which matter more here than the numbers: 3,800 lb (the maximum landing weight, 200 lb below the takeoff weight), flaps 30°, power off, maximum braking, paved level dry runway, zero wind, short-field technique. Add 40% to the ground roll on dry grass, and 35% more again if you land flaps up.

Takeoff is 1,300 ft of ground roll and 2,160 ft over a 50-foot obstacle at the full 4,000 lb, flaps 10°, sea level and standard day. The stored 1,110 ft was 15% short of the book.

T210M/N pricing trades well above equivalent normally aspirated 210M/N for the turbocharger, the 310 hp takeoff rating and — on the T210N only — the 200 lb of extra gross weight and the known-icing approval. Late T210Ns (1983-1984) trade highest for "last of the line" status, though the genuine last Turbo Centurions are the 1985 and 1986 T210Rs, a different airplane with a 325 hp TSIO-520-CE and a longer wing, which has no page here yet.

Two things to weigh that this page previously got wrong: a T210M is a 3,800 lb airplane, not 4,000, and it is not approved for flight into known icing. Both are certificate facts and both should show in a price.

The price band on this page is legacy and unsourced, and it was written for a run believed to end in 1986.

210 universal concerns apply. T210M/N-specific:

1. TSIO-520-R cylinder condition: 310 HP turbo cylinders are stressed; borescope inspection of all six cylinders essential. Recurring CHT excursions = cylinder failure ahead.
2. Turbocharger condition: Inspect for shaft play, oil seepage, blade damage. Turbo replacement: $5,000-$10,000.
3. Intercooler installation: Many T210s have aftermarket Tornado Alley intercoolers ($8,000-$12,000 install). Verify presence and condition -- the intercooler significantly extends turbo life.
4. Wastegate operation: Automatic wastegate must operate smoothly. Wastegate overhaul: $1,500-$3,000.
5. Cessna SIDs: 1977-1986 airframes are 40-49 years old; SID compliance + turbo-specific inspections increase pre-buy cost.