I can't be the only one, am I? I'd love to feel like I belong to the Piper community by having my model included in the forums index like all the other models. I feel Amish Shunned...

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Hello, My name is Jerry and I am the new owner of a 1977 Seneca 11 with the TSIO 360E engines. My question is what is the Best leaning procedure for my engines.At the current time I do not have an engine monitor system in my airplane, just the standard CHT,EGT gauges that come stock from piper.

Thanks
Jerry

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Hello, I am wondering if anyone has a path to legally replace (example of an old field approval?) the pitot tube on an older PA28-150 which we are trying to go from the old style bent rigid tube to the more modern pitot mast (doesn't necessarily need to be heated).

Thank you.

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Thanks Eric,
If or when it goes again we will try that.

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Richard,

It may not help at all but we used a fluid conditioner for the strut on an old 172 that made a huge difference. If it works it is a cheap and easy fix (relative to keep trying to fix it!). Granvilles Strut Seal. I didn't think we could get our old 172 that we are fixing up to sell to work as the plane had been in storage for years. Once we used Granvilles it was good to go and has worked great ever since. Might be worth a try if you haven't already.

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Over the past few months I have been having a problem with the nose strut of my 1981 PA28-181 loosing its fluid and going flat. I have had to have it serviced about 5 times at 2 to 4 week intervals after the strut suddenly goes flat. The most recent service event was today after it went flat two days ago. All parts have been replaced including the strut tube, all seals, and the bearing.
On a couple of occasions a seal was twisted, but today's event revealed absolutely no evidence as to why it lost fluid.
My mechanic is an AI who has been working on these small single engine planes for about 35 years and he says that he has never seen a piper on which he could not easily and effectively repair the strut.
Any hint as to what the problem could be?

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Thanks for the updates! Been working the Piper Flyer booth at AirVenture, but I’ll take a look at your photo issue soon.

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Hi John,

I fly in south and central Florida behind the J3A5D variant in the Dakota which is the same as your engine except for a bit of derating. I never use carb heat during landing. I have not had a problem. Of course, anything can happen any time, but one thing that I notice is that I get into the yellow arc of the carb temp (JPI 900) while in cruise but I don't remember ever seeing that during landing. Given the position of the carburetor and the inherent design benefits already described, I am not worried. I do not think that you should be either, but ultimately you have to do what makes you feel safe.

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Finally got time with my mechanic buddy to finish the brake caliper fix. We had already change the tire on the left main but the brake caliper was leaking over time. I could fly the plane but when I came back next time to get it out of the hangar it had a small puddle of brake fluid on the hangar floor. Not properly trained! He had already tried a fix with one set of O-rings but they didn't seem to work. So he ordered another set from Aircraft Spruce. Turns out these work (at least so far!). Cost for the O-rings: 40 cents!

Of course my buddy had to buy a new tool for bleeding the brakes. Once he got it set up (first time) he was able to bleed them in 3 pumps. He was totally thrilled with his new tool. I didn't ask him how much that cost!

After getting the brakes fixed we had to try them out, of course. First gentle taxiing with lots of brake applications. Then a rejected takeoff. Full power to 60 mph then idle and stand on the brakes. Finally we did a quick pattern. We checked the brakes after each test and all looked good.

Since you have already seen the plane on the jacks getting the tire and brake work done I took a couple pics as I "put the plane to bed". Notice the trickle charger for the battery hooked up to the GPU plug. My buddy recently fixed the GPU plug as it was INOP before. So now I can attach my battery trickle charger to it to keep the battery fully charged. It has helped to make a big difference in starting the engines. The props really spin now! We are still planning on adding the Bogert copper starter cables this winter but now the plane is starting well. The copper cables should just be a bonus.

Hello everyone,
Have a 140 Cherokee that is having some issues transmitting. Not sure if it's the PTT button or the mic jack. I can hear other transmissions but just can't transmit. Looking at putting in a Garmin 355 as well. So while the panel is off, would it be beneficial to go ahead and replace all the wiring (PTT and headset jacks), or just try to troubleshoot which it is and the replace as needed. Any advice would be appreciated! Never had any avionics work done.

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Hello,

I recently bought a PA32 Lance II from 1979 (T Tail). The plane had a prop strike 3 years ago and was stored at my local airport.

Bought it at a good price and I'm awaiting for the engine overhaul that will be completed in September (I hope so).

I still own a Grumman Tiger and a Cessna 182 that I will sell when the Piper will be ready.

The plane is registered in Belgium where I live but I will registered her in the US because our aeronautical administration is probably the worst of the world.

Welcome to everybody here.

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Time for the old girl to get a new shoe! Found a bubble starting on the sidewall of the left main so I bought two new tires (so I would have an extra for the right main when needed). My mechanic put replaced the old tire. He is also trying to track down and kill a brake fluid leak that has been tough to end. So the tire is done but the leak chase continues. He got the caliper rebuilt but says he needs a pump to properly bleed the brakes. He'll get that done while I'm on my next trip.

Hi Nathan,
I am a Seneca III owner for 32 years and have talked with many owners and prospective owners over the years.
Let me know what your questions are and I will be happy to answer ().
My Seneca and I have been to KEYW many times...one of my favorite places on earth!
David

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Hi Michael
Thanks for the update on you and your Comanche.
Based on what I've seen from a MX standpoint over the years, I feel you have good insight on Lock Haven vs. Vero Beach Pipers.
I love my little 180. I call it a two place plus bags unless I'm doing the "friends Coast Tour" here near where I live.
Yesterday I flew a two hour out and back leg from KPRB to L22. You can see it on Flight Aware under N6585P.
Mine is a 1960 model and I haven't moved the radio stack to the center so all my avionics are on the left side.
I'm a day VFR flyer although I have done enough IFR training to know how to safely go down through clouds with augering in.
I like to look a the planet.
I don't acclimate quickly so on long XCs I start sucking O2 at about 6500 feet and monitor my blood oxygen saturation with a pulse oximeter. Without supplemental O2 I turn goofy pretty quickly.
I understand about kids and AirVenture travels. I sort of get paid to go, so I do. Have been to every one since 2000.
If you feel like writing what you've learned and experienced during your acquisition and ownership of your Comanche, write it up and send it; we're always looking for true life experiences with Pipers.
Best,
Steve

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Morning Steve,

Nothing special really to tell about her, she was up in the Pacific Northwest for most of her life and down in Muscle Shoals Alabama before I bought her. I got lucky, as it did not take long for me to find her, a couple of weeks is all.

I really did not get a "Formal" pre purchase inspection. She was at a dealership in Oklahoma City and, I again got lucky, as one of my local Mechanics was ferrying a plane out to Southern California. Since he was taking the Interstate 40 route out there and was going to stop for the night somewhere in OK anyway, I asked him to drop in and give me a couple hours looking her over. I was most concerned with any airframe issues as everything else, while expensive, is really bolt on/bolt off. He reported back that he opened up a few inspection ports and she looked very solid. He also had a gander at the logs and they checked as well.

I am based out of Moline, IL and hired another ferry pilots to get her up here and then spent some time with my instructor. In Feb15, I took her to Cliff over at Heritage Aero for her 1st annual under my conservatorship and while it was a doozy, it put her strait and I have had very, very few problems since. As you are aware, they are just built more solid then the follow on aircraft. At it was explained to me, Engineers built the Comanche....after that the accountants took over.

Please don't get me wrong, I am not disparaging the follow on Piper aircraft, in order for Piper to stay competitive it needed to happen, but there is a difference between those aircraft built in Lockhaven and those built in Vero Beach. Both are solid but in my opinion, the Lockhaven aircraft are just a smidge more so.

I know this is sacrilege, but I have never been to Airventure and don't currently have plans to go. Still have kids in the house and if I told my Mrs. that I was going to an airshow for a few days leaving her here alone with the kids and all their activities.....ya you can imagine how that would go. It's on my bucket list and I will do a Comanche Town as soon as I can.

You and Kristin are the reason I joined, saw a post on the facebook group by Malcolm (I cannot remember his last name right now, but he talks just like John Malkovich) promoting an tech article in the Piper Flyer that Kristin put together.

Happy to be here.

Mike

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Since getting the Apache flying I have wanted to test the cruise speed for max cruise. The book says about 6500' with 75% is going to give the max cruise speed. However, every time I tried to test there were clouds at that level or it was just too bumpy. So yesterday I had the perfect day to check it out. I had a buddy that was a 727 pilot go with me and we went out to check the Apache for best speed. We climbed up and I was beginning to think it wasn't climbing as fast I would expect. I set up cruise power and thought maybe an engine was running a little rough but nothing seemed wrong. Checking the speed I could see it was not giving me as much as I expected. However I still couldn't figure out what was wrong. After getting back I did my figures. I had taken speeds on the 4 cardinal headings and came up with an average ground speed of 156.5 mph. While not terrible it was not what I expected and I was pretty deflated. Driving home I was trying to understand what the issue was. I thought that if I was in my Airbus I would have thought the issue was my landing lights extended as they will "rumble" a bit and take a very slight performance hit. I don't have lights that extend, not even cowl flaps.

Then I realized what the problem was, the door was causing the drag! When we taxied out I had mentioned to my buddy that the door handle should come up further. He pulled it up but it didn't go up any more. I made sure the top latch was good and we went. While climbing I had see the top latch had let go so I again pulled it closed and it stayed shut. However, I later understood he had never gotten the main latch closed, just the "click" latch. So the door had been slightly "in trail" and caused the rumble and extra drag. Just a little but that was enough.

So back out today and I did some more tests on my own. This time I made sure the door was totally shut closed! Climb felt great and with the same test parameters (6500' @ full throttle-23" & 2400 rpm) I got 162.5 mph. This was more what I had expected. Then going to 2300 rpm it only dropped to 160.25 mph. I then climbed up and tried 8500' with full throttle-21" & 2300 and got an average of 156.75.

So for now I'm happy with the speed numbers I'm getting. I'll keep track of what I get at cruise when we go somewhere but for now I will claim a "top speed" of 140 KTAS. Or maybe 160 mph since it sounds faster!

No pics of the "speed runs" since they are pretty boring but I am including one of my nosewheel (super exciting!) since I I totally nailed pushing the plane into the hangar and getting the nosewheel into the alignment box. I use a golf cart to push it in and it has been a slow process for me to learn how to control it.

Hi Mike;
Welcome to the Piper Flyer forum page.
Tell me a little more about your Comanche.
Did it take you a long time to find a good one?
What was found during the pre-purchase inspection?
Where are you based?
Are you planning to fly up to AirVenture this year?? If so, please join us in Waupaca on the Saturday and Sunday prior to the AirVenture opening on Monday.
As you probably know I own a Comanche 180, which I love, and Kristin Winter, another writer for the Piper Flyer, flies and maintains a PA-30 Twin Comanche.
Glad to have you aboard.
Steve

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