Piper Comanche - search results

An affordable cabin-class twin made in wide model variation. Watch for a long AD list and high maintenance costs.

[IMGCAP(1)]After one too many nights in the clag over the mountains or the Great Lakes in a single, youve finally decided its time for a twin.

Yes, operating costs will be more than twice that of a single of comparable speed and your new twin may not even haul the same load as that single.

However, you want a fighting chance when an engine quits at night, over water, with instrument weather below you. Sounds reasonable to us. But which twin to buy?

Three assumptions here: A $900,000 new Baron isn't in your future; youre shopping used. Second, youre not after a cabin class cruiser to start but a light-light twin having fewer than 200 horsepower per side. Well treat l...

All airplanes are compromises. Since most of us lack an unlimited budget, were often forced to choose between going fast in a relatively small cockpit or dragging around a larger cabin more slowly. Its simple, really: The "go-fast" airplane will get us to our destination sooner, but we might be forced to leave behind a few things, or a few people. The slower, large-cabin bird gets us there just fine, thank you, and lets us carry all the stuff we'll need upon arrival.

Regarded as one of the workhorses of general aviation, the Piper Navajo has found a substantial market in the charter business. But its also an appealing twin for owners who want to fly themselves in relative comfort and luxury. Like the Cessna 402, as one example, you don't find many Navajos in private ownership, although some aircraft sales professionals we spoke with during our research told us thats changing-and good ones sell for a premium.

When considering basic airplanes, the 150/160-hp four-place, fixed-gear single is about as ubiquitous as one can get. The niche serves as the beginning rung of a market ladder where airplanes begin to be used as practical transportation tools. They wont haul a lot of people or cargo, nor will they do it quickly, but they offer economical travel. They often serve as a pilots first "real" airplane after primary training, and the market demands they be reliable, inexpensive to operate and relatively easy to fly. Airplanes in this class are sort of like Toyotas: not terribly exciting or fancy, perhaps, but they do what you need them to without costing an arm and a leg. Cessnas Skyhawk owns this market, of course, and used-airplane prices reflect that dominance. At least two of its mainstream competitors, the Piper PA-28-151 or -161 Warrior and AGAC AA-5 Traveler/Cheetah, are good, solid airplanes that can be had for less. (Beechs entry, the Sport, is short on performance when compared to the Warrior and Cheetah.) The AA-5 went the way of the dodo in the late 1970s, and attempts to resurrect it (in the form of the Tiger) failed. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Piper, too, fell on hard times and was forced into bankruptcy, finally emerging several years (and a few abortive buyout attempts) later as the New Piper. In 2006, "new" was dropped from the companys name. Unlike the Skyhawk, and with only one or two exceptions, the Warrior has been in production throughout, even if the number of airframes manufactured in each model year could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Now in the "Warrior III" configuration, the model is marketed mainly as a trainer.

Its hardly the fastest twin but its reliable, easy to maintain and insure and its one of only three piston twins still in production.

A passenger-friendly Piper Lance or Saratoga is still a logical traveling single. Check the ADs and insurance.

If price alone drives the buying equation, heres our survey of the absolute best values in five categories of used airplanes.

[IMGCAP(1)]The 33 Bonanza is one of the few piston singles to survive the great general aviation slump of the 1980s. The quintessential doctor/lawyer single, it even outlived the previous archetype, the Model 35 V-tail Bonanza.

Owners love its flying qualities, performance, comfort and sturdy construction. However, they also have some words on the high cost of parts and maintenance, typical of Beech aircraft. Also, there are a few things to be careful of when operating a Bonanza.

History
Beech practically invented the modern retractable single just after WWII, when it introduced the original Bonanza. There was really no competition for it for years: in the late 1940s Cessna...

Its a Bonanza in everything but name. The Deb outlasted and eventually replaced the venerable V-tail.

While experience has taught us that there's no free lunch in aviation, especially when speed is involved, we wanted to know if there were any ways to make our airplanes faster without having to spend cubic bucks. We surveyed the speed mod market-its vast-and found that while there are some high-dollar mods out there, it may be possible to up the cruise speed and climb rate of your airplane by 5 to 10 percent without going broke. Heres what we found.

My guess is that many pilots like me are over 40 years of age (Im 62) and may not be completely familiar with newer wireless Bluetooth technology and its limitations. After a radio failure on a recent flight, I tried to pair my newer Bose A20 Bluetooth headset with my new Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone I bought to replace my aging iPhone 4, which would connect to my A20. The local ATC tower has a recorded phone line where they can issue control instructions in a pinch.