Piper Comanche - search results

Hows a good time to buy a used airplane. Savvy buyers can snap up pretty much whatever they want, paying as little as 50 percent of what the same plane might have gone for only three or four years ago. But what to buy? Our answer always has been the right airplane for you is the right airplane for your mission. For many of us, that means a four-seater capable of [IMGCAP(1)]cruising at around 130…

Speed matters. Ask any pilot. Frustratingly, speed costs money and lots of speed, as the warbird set says, costs cubic money. In the single-engine piston world, we’d each love to blast across the sky over 230 knots in a Cessna TTX, yet for most, the exchequer doesn’t quite stretch to the nearly three-quarters of a million dollars needed to buy one. In this day and aviation market age, a $180,000 purchase price isn’t out of line, especially if it’s split a few ways. Moving through the air at 180 knots is cooking along nicely, so in keeping with our general fascination with symmetrical numbers, we decided to create the 180 for 180 club and then find out what airplanes are qualified to join—those that have a real-life cruise speed of at least 180 knots and a Bluebook value of $180,000 or less. It turns out that a nice selection of airplanes qualify for the club. Naturally, our research lead to a number of caveats—few of the airplanes in the speed and price range were built in this century, and every single one of them is of sophisticated design with complex systems, so a careful pre-buy carried out by a maintenance technician who knows the type of aircraft is essential if you are going to avoid purchasing yourself a financial nightmare.

I have never explicitly seen it written anywhere that when one buys a glass panel airplane like the Garmin G1000-equipped Mooney Acclaim, the aircraft OEM owns the software for the avionics. This has been a problem with Mooney through its various bankruptcies and production hiatus. I don't know if it has been a problem with other OEMs, and I understand only Mooney Service Centers (which seem to be few and far between) can do the G1000 software upgrades.

Proposals for new autopilot upgrades can be shocking. Even entry-level wing-leveling systems start at $10,000, not including installation. But that won’t buy much. Higher-end models with add-on options can easily snowball a project to $40,000. That’s roughly the cost of an average engine replacement—or an average Skyhawk.

Which shops offer the best overhauls? Owners say top shops earn loyalty not by building better engines but by standing behind the work after the sale.

Proposals for new autopilot upgrades can be shocking. Even entry-level wing-leveling systems start at $10,000, not including installation. But that won’t buy much. Higher-end models with add-on options can easily snowball a project to $40,000. That’s roughly the cost of an average engine replacement—or an average Skyhawk.

In the typical car or truck the battery box may be nothing more than a tray to support the battery. But there’s more going...

Among light-light twins, the Duchess is one of the better performers, with good slow speed traits and decent cruise speed.

Speed brakes, also called spoilers, have been sighted on everything from C-172s to Dukes and Cessna 421s. To a certain extent, theyve become a status symbol.

Yet, on some airplanes, you have to ask: When the heck would you ever use them? And on others, you might wonder why the factory didnt think of adding them in the first place. (Actually, brakes are a factory standard accessory or option on a number of new aircraft, including Mooneys, Bonanzas and the new Lancair Columbia.)

Thats all we'll and good for buyers of new airplanes. But what about the meat-and-potatoes of the gadget and accessory market, the retrofits? Are brakes a must-have item or just oneof those things to soak...

For pilots transitioning to twin-engine airplanes, the Cessna Skymaster is often overlooked. Maybe that’s because the airplane is rather unconventional, with a unique design...

We see a comparable safety record but watch fuel management in Comanches and engine burps in Mooneys and Commanders.

Live the likes of new-age airplane companies like Cirrus and Diamond one thing: They have resisted the overwhelming urge to fit their airplanes with folding gear. But manufacturers of the 1960s and 1970s had no such resistance, including Cessna when it added retractable gear to the venerable 182. Was the effort worth it? It did add about 15 knots of cruise speed without too much of a hit in fuel burn. But it also introduced a complex, maintenance-hungry gear system that owners say will work acceptably we'll if looked after. Owners generally like the airplane and it sold we'll initially from its introduction in 1978 until the bottom dropped out in the early 1980s. By 1986, the model was gone, along with the rest of Cessnas piston production.