Doing a bit of [del]self-torture[/del] looking at airplanes, I found this beautiful 1959 Piper PA-24 Comanche. What a stunning plane! And the panel is really nice.
Piper built the Comanche from 1957 to 1972. After the tooling was destroyed by a flood, Piper dropped it to concentrate on the twin-engine Seneca and the single-engine Arrow at their Florida factory. Too bad. I practically grew up around airports (mom was an aviation secretary at an FBO, and dad was FAA when he retired from the Navy), and I always liked the looks of the Comanche. Granted, airplane designs don’t change that much – give it a fresh coat of paint, and people will think it’s new – but the Comanche looks as fresh today as it did half a century ago.
My Dad had a 1965 Comanche B 260 (fuel injection) for many years. I got to fly it often.
No tip tanks but it had 90 gallons. Only a 2 bladed prop.
One of the most dangerous airplane engine combinations to hand prop. (start) Never had to do that on our plane but I have done it on a few 250 Comanche’s which have a carburetor.
My mom flew my sister and me up to my dad’s in a Musketeer. Lost electrical on the way up. All it turned out to be was turned a circuit breaker; but unbeknownst to my mom, it ran down the battery. When the time came to go home, the plane wouldn’t start. Dad hand-propped it. Unfortunately, I had just seen Family Flight…
I’ll always talk about flying. I don’t mind PMs, but I haven’t been flying in two years and I haven’t been active for much longer. (I think about it every day, though!) If you were to start a ‘Bear_Nenno’s Amazing Pilot Training Adventure’ thread, I’ll post to it and you’ll get input from the pretty good sized pool of Flying Dopers – a couple of which are CFIs.
Yeah, I know, a hobby license. Wasn’t what I wanted… and my native vision was a hell of a long ways from 20/40 (8.5 and 7.5 diopter, plus notable astigmatism). Even though contacts gave me pretty good correction, I had two CFIs tell me my chances of getting approved were iffy.
Now, of course, after Navy-pilot-grade PRK, I have nearly 20/20 vision with a slight recurrence of the astig. Too late.
Here’s something you don’t see every day. An actual Cessna T-41 Mescalero. It was originally a U.S. Army trainer, but now has a civilian interior and paint. The T-41 (Cessna R172E) had a 210 hp engine and a constant-speed prop, vs. the 145 hp engine, fixed-pitch prop of the civilian 172H.
Here’s another Comanche. Not as pretty as the one in the OP, but half the price. Nice panel. (I like the glass on the other one though.) With Skyhawks, which is what I’m interested in, you can really see how much better the later panels are on the later ones. Comparing mid-'60s Pipers with mid-'60s Skyhawks, I’ve always thought the Pipers had a better layout. In any case, the new panel on the '58 Comanche is a nice upgrade. Here’s a pic of an ‘original’ panel.
Johnny, looks like the auction in your original post ends today! Turns out the plane is kept at the airport right by me (there’s a Burbank Airport stop on my train route going home). I’m happy to pick it up for you, should you purchase it, so long as you’re not picky about licensing legalities and any particular likelihood of me delivering it to you safely. You just let me know.
