Piper Comanche

The Piper Comanche is a four-seat all metal light airplane built by Piper Aircraft. It is a low wing aircraft of monocoque construction with retractable landing gears. The Comanche was first produced in 1956. It was a prototype of a new single engine four seat plane and it was at that time the best looking airplane that Piper had built. It was, until 1972, one of the best looking airplanes that Piper had build. It was until 1972, one of the best looking aircraft Piper built, and it was in this year that Piper closed because of a flood that destroyed their production plants. The Comanche had several variations made until it stopped production.

The Piper Comanche base model is powered by a 180 horsepower Lycoming engine that cruises at about 150 knots and burns about eight gallons of fuel per hour. The base model version of the Comanche is fairly fuel efficient and with its great cruise speed and a real four seater plane in its category, it has also a great following. Another advantage with having this aircraft is its retractable landing gear which probably has an influence on its good full-burn ration and flying efficiency. These features the Piper Comanche accounts for the very loyal following that it has.

There were a few variations of the Piper Comanche that evolved over the years. From the 180 horsepower it evolved into the 250 HP, the 260 HP, and the 260 TC Turbo changed version and the 400 horsepower. With the continued increase in horsepower, the speed increased, including the fuel consumption. Although the 400 cruises at 185 knots and even greater, it also burns about 21 gallons of fuel per hour, which make it a gas guzzler. This makes the 400 a not so popular Comanche with 400 units produced compared to the 4000 Comanche models.

The Piper Comanche had a lot of following and majority of these loyal followers are sold on this aircraft and is still loyal to it. This is basically the reason that if you want to find one you need to have patience in orders to find one. One drawback to the Comanche that can be easily fixed with proper maintenance is the landing gear. It requires that busing and rod ends have to be properly cleaned, maintained, and greased. This is probably because of the beating that it regularly receives in landings.

But this retractable landing wheel of the Piper Comanche is also an advantage. It's good power to fuel burn ratio is also an advantage (180) and it is quite a good value as far as prices are compared with the other planes in the same category. You can find a Comanche of your liking and fits your needs perfectly, by doing a patient search on the internet. There are still many of these available in the used plane market in the net.