Piper Comanche - search results

Battery Notes
The conclusions in your battery review in the December issue were right on: Alkalines in the headset and ANRs and Ni-MH in the constant-use GPS.

Ive had a problem with Duracells over the past many years, where I can count on one battery in 10 leaking. On the NiMHs, some are now purporting to deliver 2000 ma/hour or more, up from 1500, which will skew your curve even more in favor of these. But, as noted, self-discharge is phenomenal.

Ive been using the Rayovac rechargeable alkalines since they first came out. My experience says you'll be doing we'll if you get 20 cycles out of them, compared to your guess of 50, and those last few cycles will be short-l...

It’s easy to see why Meyers owners are so enthusiastic about their four-place singles. If speed is the goal, a Meyers brings it—well north...

No speed demon, to be sure, but hard to beat for comfort, styling panache and purchase value.

Itll haul heroic payloads at respectable cruise speeds. But don't scrimp on preventive maintenance.

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Pilots browsing through the light turboprops as a natural step up from a piston twin might be drawn to the Mitsubishi MU-2s by the lure of dazzling speed, unbeatable short-field work and a less-than-shocking purchase price. However, the airplane has a reputation as being hot and dangerous. Most owners attribute this to bad press, but the press had to come from somewhere: in this case, it was the accident rate, which was very high in the early years-so high that the FAA considered requiring a type rating for the MU-2. That never came to pass, however.

So, is the MU-2 unsafe? Owners universally say no, but.... The but is the need for initial and recurrent training. One...

[IMGCAP(1)]By dint of good engineering, good construction methods or just good luck, some airframes clearly stand far above others when it comes to reliability and robustness.

Only a handful of airplanes meet this description but among them is certainly the big Commander twins, including the 500 series. When first introduced, Rockwell International touted this design as being among the stoutest most reliable airframes ever conceived by man.

The reality turns out to be not too far from the truth. Indeed, Commanders do have a reputation of mechanical excellence, although theyre not without their quirks.

And everyone knows the airframes are tough as nails, as evidenced by Bob...

[IMGCAP(1)]The Travel Air was Beechs entry into the then-new light twin market, making use of a formula used successfully by several manufacturers: take the basic design of a successful single and make a twin out of it. The single in this case was the Bonanza. Later on, Beech did the same thing over again and got the Baron as a result. Compared to the prestigious and pricey Barons, though, the Travel Air can be a real bargain.

However, the Travel Air is, shall we say, a vintage airplane; one that, no matter how virtuous, is getting very long in the tooth. The tough decision for a buyer, then, is whether the price savings offered by the Model 95-which has escalated to perhaps $50,000 t...

I read the Garmin GXM42 satellite receiver and new weather subscription article in your May 2014 issue. Are these guys Sirius? Even with a $300 rebate, does SiriusXM really think many customers are going to pay roughly the cost of an ADS-B receiver only to pay another $385 to $1200 per year to get the weather data? Further, I don’t think the data—which doesn’t have traffic—is more useful than the free FIS-B ADS-B weather products.

A high-class twin with good speed and decent payload. Theyre a good value in the current soft market.

The FAA didn’t get serious about seatbelts until 1978, and even then it was only requiring shoulder restraints for the front seats. Ten years later, they added the rear. Given how long aircraft stay in service, that means there are thousands of craft flying every day with inadequate protection for the most valuable item on board. If you’re flying with only a lap belt—shame on you. As much as some pilots don’t like having belts over their shoulders, the study data has been clear for decades: 88 percent of injuries and 20 percent of fatalities can be eliminated by adding shoulder or additional restraints over lap belts alone, according to the the FAA.

Pleasant handling, plenty of ramp appeal, plus North American Mustang pride built in.

Yes, FS is more expensive but we like its structured syllabus and more polished take-away training materials.