Then again you never know, do you? ). I got away with it but the incident left me shaken. Turbo Twin Comanches are particularly fast at … It’s a serious machine in every way. 515 hrs L/R. I release the brakes with the locking chrome T handle in the panel under the control column and allow the Twin Com to roll forward under idle power before checking the toe brakes. For this reason the much cheaper but less capable Seminole was brought back into production instead. Gross weight … Read More "Piper 1966 TA-30B Turbo Twin Comanche" Performance Twin Comanche owners report cruise speeds of 160 to 210 knots on 13 to 16 gallons per hour. Share your invaluable experience. Become an Ambassador and broaden the awareness of your wonderful airplane! Please send us your experiences on your aircraft. Our guess is that the median cruise is closer to the lower number than anything above 200 knots. A complex light twin, with retractable landing gear, seating 4 (in original models) to 6 (in later models), and cruise speeds ranging from 160-210 mph on twin 150-160 horsepower engines, it competed with the more-powerful Cessna 310 and Beech Baron , and … I am having no problems descending, slowing down, and fitting into slower circuit traffic at North Weald. Counter rotating props and turbos able to climb to 19000 feet on one engine. I remember finding the performance a big leap from the Pipers singles that I had flown. IO-320-CIA Horsepower: 160 TBO hrs. 15 Best Range: 1100 NM At 44 inches, the cabin is two inches wider than a Baron’s and even the rear seats can be occupied by two adults. Twin engine piston aircraft with retractable landing gear. I’m in my fifties now so not as sharp as I was, but I’m experienced on swept-wing jets and various laminar-winged high performance aircraft−so I wasn’t expecting any surprises. A good-looking, four- to six-place light twin that goes 170 knots on 17 gph and costs a relatively modest $45,000 to $80,000? TwinComanches.com and all of our resources are available to anyone... we just need you to create an account! Leaks in either System can cause poor Performance. Aircraft performance stats and information for the Piper PA-30, B Twin Comanche aircraft. There is quite a bit of weight on the nosewheel due to those projecting engines but the steering is actually light and progressive. 1971 PA39 Twin Comanche C/R N289WW - SOLD (Why aileron trim? Top models include NAVAJO CHIEFTAIN, SENECA V, … We are a long way under our MTOW so the aircraft feels sprightly. Formation flying with the camera ship is pretty straightforward although it is easy to become unsighted during the break away manoeuvres due to all the hardware obscuring the view. No surprise then that it is at least twenty per cent better in every way than the old Apache that it replaced. Are you sure you want to delete your review? At the time both the aircraft (G-AVVI and G-AXRO) that I hired were in commercial use as charter aircraft at Southend airport. Logs back to 1984 first 20 years missing. The rudder is powerful and I can easily hold the out of trim forces with one engine shut down, although the use of rudder trim and a little bit of aileron trim means I can actually fly hands off. I apply the toe brakes and then raise the undercarriage with the tiny selector to the left of the panel. Controls, levers and dials are in abundance, sprouting from a deep instrument panel. - Send us pictures of your plane. On the approach the Twin Com behaves itself just so long as you remember to adhere to the correct speeds. When the Bonanza begat the twin-engined Travel Air and subsequently the Baron, Piper was inspired to give the PA-24 to Ed Swearingen to re-engineer it as a twin. Instead, the Piper Comanche was a thoroughly modern design focused on speed and good looks, and targeting the high-performance piston-single market being tapped by the Beech Bonanza and Cessna 210, among others. A little care has to be taken about the geometry of the toe brakes−they are too upright for my taste. I managed to firewall the throttles to cushion the impact but the landing was hard enough that once I had taxied clear I stopped and got out of the aircraft to examine the main undercarriage to make sure there wasn’t any obvious damage before continuing. Next we try flying on a single engine. My first experience of the Twin Com was when I did my twin rating on the type in 1985. In other words, the normal 17 to 18" you will get … I looked at the US market for used aircraft and PA-30s were all in the US$45,000-120,000 price bracket. And for the turbo version it’s 1,300nm-plus! It was and is a fantastic little aircraft, able to fly at 160kt below 10,000ft, burning just nine US gallons a side on a combined total of 320hp. The previously heavy stabilator comes alive in the prop wash and I hold the column neutral as we gather speed. The next thing I notice are the engines projecting out much farther forward than with many other light twins so that you sit well behind the props. The turbo controllers are used as follows: when the desired manifold pressure can no longer be obtained by advancing the throttles in a climb, you turn to the verniers and start winding them in until manifold pressure is restored. As a twenty-something, I remember thinking that I had finally ‘arrived’ when I soloed one of these aircraft and that same rush is still with me more than thirty years later. Twin ray jay turbos this a turbo normalized system. By 20,000 feet they will be all the way in and you will be flying at 195 knots or better. - Use this form or email to reach out to us: feedback@planephd.com, Aircraft Values and Total Ownership Costs. When I bought my Turbo Twin Comanche, a Miller converted '67 PA-30, the right engine turbo System could produce about only 6" of boost at 12,000'. 1964 piper pa-30 twin comanche this is a twinkie like no other! In 1965, the PA-30B was introduced. Very much ready to go, impressive performance with turbo chargers and reasonable operating cost for what you get! No know Damage. 1969 Piper Twin Turbo Comanche: Beauty, speed, and economy – all in one package! You will be hard pressed to find many twin comanche turbo cr's. Total Cost of Ownership: $20,346.52 ( Engine starting is classic ‘fuel-injected Lycoming’: crack the throttles open, hit the fuel pumps until you see an indication of fuel pressure, pull the mixtures to lean, make sure the generators are switched off, crank each engine in turn after switching on the mags and, as it fires into life, bring the mixture levers up to full rich. I listened intently to the stories I was told of the infamous laminar wing: how the aircraft could “fall from the sky” if you flew it too slowly by the seat of your pants without paying attention to the ASI. spd. ... Our twin Comanche has been in the family for about 8 years and my children have used it to obtain their Instrument ratings. ( Throttles closed at the same time as, but not before (laminar wing, remember) a small flare and we land on the main wheels in a flat attitude, quickly followed by the nosewheel. A great aircraft for a Twin Comanche … It uses the Rajay manual turbocharging system, and has 75-percent power cruise true airspeeds of 209 knots. Piper’s Twin Com prototype first flew in 1962. (NB: The Twin Comanche is not certified for flight in known icing conditions.) In the descent the opposite is the best way to proceed; rather than abruptly disengaging the turbos, just leave the throttles fully forward and progressively wind the turbo verniers out until they are all the way back, then slowly retard the throttles. Generally, airplanes with higher cruise speeds have various speed-boosting mods. Aircraft performance stats and information for the Piper PA-30 B Turbo Twin Comanche aircraft. At seventy knots I raise the nose and the aircraft unsticks abruptly. Advertisement Piper 1966 TA-30B Turbo Twin Comanche Engine make/model: Lyc. Running down along the hard runway at North Weald feels the same as the ride you get in a ’50s British sports car. Of course, achieving that goal was not much of a stretch for Mr. Swearingen. Piper introduced the 400 hp version of the Comanche, and by mid-year, started producing the 1965 model year—the first of the 260 hp Comanches. The Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche (later PA-39) was designed as a twin-engined variant of the Piper PA-24 Comanche. Best Cruise: 194 KIAS Owner Mark Hadley is showing me around his immaculate 1967 Twin Com ‘Turbo B’ at North Weald, complete with its beautiful and original blue-and-white paint scheme. Our website is completely free to use and contains content available to our registered users. Slow speed flying is also predictable, as is the abrupt g break you get, clean or dirty. Some owners pump the main wheel oleos to the full extension to avoid this but then the ride on the ground suffers. This toy-like aeroplane reveals itself to have a quite large cabin. You can tell a B model by its six seats and third side windows. Generally, those with higher cruise speeds have installed various speed-boosting mods. If you come from high-wing singles this will take some getting used to and you will find yourself seesawing in roll until you settle down. Advertise your PIPER PA-30C Turbo Twin Comanche on this page. Aircraft Performance Details - FindAircraft.com is the #1 aircraft for sale search engine and trusted online resource for the Aircraft Dealer Network since 1998 with over 18,000 daily listings. Today, PA-30s−and especially the small handful of PA-39s remaining−are cherished aircraft with a keen following and strong owner groups, who make a point of using the type’s long legs to arrange fly-ins all over the world. As I said, a serious machine in every way. And despite losing some effective wingspan due to its twin engine installation, the ‘Twin Com’ has only 9.5 inches more span than the single. He thought the PA-30 too small but I think he might well change his mind when I arrange for a flight in one in the next few weeks. Match My Mission: Which airplane is right for me? The most obviously unusual feature of this cabin, though is at the bottom of the throttle quadrant. With speed mods to the wings, fillets and engine nacelles, this figure climbs and 200 knot-plus speeds are readily achievable. 0 Fuelburn: 17.2 GPH ) Once strapped in, the area around the front seats is actually quite roomy. Browse a wide selection of new and used PIPER Piston Twin Aircraft for sale near you at Controller.com. 1963 PA30 Twin Comanche N7068Y - Call 3836 AFTT LE 228 SMOH RE 1967 SMOH NDH MISSING LOGS. ) The first thing that strikes me is its size: so much smaller than the beefy Apache and Aztec, and smaller still than the Seminole trainer, which came later. The PA-30C Turbo Twin Comanche seats up to 5 passengers plus 1 pilot. - Aircraft data that you believe is inaccurate or have specific experiences. Piper PA-30, Twin Comanche performance. (If you wondered why a laminar-winged aircraft cuts through the gusts while the average Piper will have your head impacting the roof, now you know.). Turbo Twin Comanches are particularly fast at altitude, typically cruising at 195 knots or … Speed brakes, Lopresti Speed cowls, One piece windshield. Such objectives may seem incompatible in the same airplane, but the truth is that from 1963 to 1972 Piper built about 2,200 airplanes with those characteristics. Pilots who flew both aircraft often said that the Twin Comanche was everything the Apache wasn’t. Advertisement 1964 Piper Comanche 400 New price (1964): $36,890 Used price: $128,000 Engine make/model: Lycoming IO-720 A1A TBO (hrs. Only 2656 hrs total time. Probably not a good idea to avail yourself of the cigarette ashtrays in the cabin. Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche ‘Turbo B’ specs, Hartzell two-blade metal variable-pitch propellers, Terrafugia ‘flying car’ gets US S-LSA certification, 2/3 bedroom barn conversion for sale, 200 yards from Caernarfon airport | £145,000. The Twin Com first flew in 1963. Climbing inside a Twin Com is the aviation equivalent of entering Doctor Who’s Tardis. Certainly when after the big recession in the 1980s and ’90s Piper looked at its existing stable of twin designs with an eye to restarting production it was reckoned that the labour-intensive construction of the Twin Com would result in a price of at least one million dollars per aircraft, dictated by build cost alone. Fuel cost per hour: : 1800 Propeller: Const. 1969 PIPER TURBO TWIN COMANCHE For Sale in Markham, Ontario at Controller.com. Advertisement 1969 Piper Twin Comanche N8670Y Base/used Price: $110,000 Engine make/model: Lycoming IO-320-B1A Horsepower@rpm: 160@2700 Horsepower for takeoff: 160 TBO hrs. incredibly fast....rayjay turbo"s will pick up the performance slack for high density altitudes and elevations.....sips fuel (and with 144 gal usable, you can fly clear across north america!!) Because a wing without the benefit of prop wash creates less lift, even a laminar one.). Here project two overly-large turbocharger controllers−verniers like the throttle/prop controls of a Cessna−which are used to bring the turbos on line at altitude. The Twin Com is actually lovely to hand-fly and I don’t use the autopilot at all during our hour long flight. In aerodynamic terms, up until then Piper had been very much a one-trick pony, using the old Cub aerofoil across its model range. But if it was good enough for the commercial pilots of the time then it’s good enough for me. It was and is a fantastic little aircraft able to fly at 160 knots below 10,000 feet, burning just 9 U.S. gallons a side on a combined total of 320 hp. Very straightforward it may be, but there is always a sense of occasion starting up a twin. I advance the throttles fully and the aircraft accelerates well. Piper’s Twin Com prototype first flew in 1962. The new PA-30 Twin Comanche, or “TwinCo,” provided pilots with performance that pretty much fit the package it came in. Robertson Stol. As we break out of the circuit and head for the Essex coast I start to get a feel for the aircraft again after my thirty-plus years’ gap. In reality the pipes are usually covered in dust and grime and they also have an annoying habit of working their way loose inside the bottom of the fuselage, which means the drained fuel exits inside the aircraft before finding its way through some or other gap to the outside. I couldn’t find a single PA-39 for sale and that’s situation normal: no one seems to know what they sell for, so I suppose the answer is “a lot”. ( Out there on the wing tips are the optional 15 US gal tip tanks, which increase the total fuel capacity to 120 US gal and−because of the cantilever effect of weight distribution−also increase MTOW by 125 lb to 3,725 lb. This Twin Comanche is in an extremely beautiful showroom condition! I fly final at 105mph, remembering the old ‘blue line’ safety speed from my training many years before, then back to ninety, and eighty as I cross the fence. At 24,000 feet, Piper claimed 214 knots as possible. I get owner Mark to feather our left engine as I keep control of the aircraft and allow the camera ship to fly alongside. I was coming in to land on the now disused south-west runway and had reduced my speed to minimum approach of around eighty−i.e. 0.0 For all its performance, it may … Between the seats−a space wide enough for a traditional flight case−there are panels which lift or detach to expose emergency landing gear lowering apparatus, the fuel tank selectors and an archaic fuel sample draining set-up which I remember from my past didn’t work very well. Yes it requires a bit of work but then this is a fifty-year-old aeroplane. Serial Number: 1881; Airframe: 7381.0 Hours Total Since New ; Engines: Lycoming IO-360-CUF - Left 5025.6 TSN, 780.5 TSO; Right 2581.8 TSN, 856.2 TSO The one big disadvantage with a laminar wing is that its stall is usually much more dramatic than with a traditional aerofoil, such as the Clark Y. I found this out flying into Le Touquet not long after getting my twin rating. 1964 PA30 Robertson Twin Comanche C/R N88AP ... 1972 PA39 Turbo TwinCo C/R N8971Y - $119,900 3600 AFTT LE 36 SMOH RE 1550 SMOH NDH COMPLETE LOGS. This kind of wing converts airspeed to lift much more readily than does a laminar aerofoil. For all its performance, it may be hard for some to believe that Twin Comanches use fuel injected variants of the venerable — and nearly bulletproof — 160-horsepower Lycoming O- 320 engine. That’s right, the same engine used in the Cessna Skyhawk, Piper Super Cub, and Piper Tri-Pacer, among other plodding, mundane airplanes. It is the fastest model year of the Twin Comanches and can cruise around 200 knots at altitude while sipping just 16 gallons an hour! Despite its success, Piper was out of its comfort zone with the Comanche line, and when a flood destroyed its Lock Haven factory in 1972 the company appears to have used that as an excuse to stop Twin Com production after only just over 2,000 had been built, and its counter-rotating PA-39 development was just getting started, not even a couple of hundred having left the production line. Until then, the company had built mostly rag-and-tube taildraggers. - Features that would be useful to you. ): 1800 Horsepower@altitude: 400@SL Horsepower on takeoff: … Read More "1964 Piper Comanche 400" (You can tell this one is a ‘B’ because of the extra side windows and the facility for an extra row of seats.). Turbo Twin Comanches are particularly fast at altitude, typically cruising at 195 knots at 20,000ft. COMANCHE 400 TURBO WITH STOL • $93,000 • AVAILABLE • 5500TT 200smoh in 2005 by Brodie’s aircraft, prop 250 spoh. Production of the Twin Comanche ceased in 1972 - by which time only the PA-39 was available - due to the flooding of Piper's Lock Haven factory. Twin engine piston aircraft with retractable landing gear. PUBLISHED: 13:16 29 June 2018 | UPDATED: 13:16 29 June 2018. PIPER PA-30C Turbo Twin Comanche - Specifications, Performance, Operating cost, Valuation, Brokers - planephd.com Due to a running injury, my right foot can’t flex less than about seventy degrees to my lower leg, and its all too easy taxi with the brakes deployed inadvertently. Granted, many singles turn in similar performance figures. The starters, mags, fuel pumps and generators are a line of toggle switches at the base of the instrument panel. A large (6ft 4in and 18st) friend of mine has been looking for a twin for some time to commute 600nm at a go and was looking at Barons and Cessna 310s which have twice the burning/running costs of a Twin Com. The PA-30C Turbo Twin Comanche seats up to 5 passengers plus 1 pilot. Add power and the g break is accompanied by a wing drop of as much as 45 degrees. The windscreen almost seems like an afterthought and the effect is akin to looking out of a letter box, until you get the seat position just right so that your eye height is half way between bottom and top of the screen.