1978 Piper Turbo Lance II Questions

sruflyer

sruflyer

Well-Known Member
A student of mine has just purchased a 1978 Piper Turbo Lance II and I was wondering if there was anyone out there familiar with the airframe? I have time in Piper Saratogas, Cherkokee Six 300/260, and a Piper T-Tail Arrow but no time in the Turbo Lance. Any good rules of thumb for the turbo and any quirks I should know about. Thanks in advance.
 
Lots of people are scared of T-tails for no good reason. It's an airplane, fly the dang airplane. Don't get too slow on final and you won't have any issues.

Standard turbo procedures apply. Most arrows are happy on climb out between 105-110.
 
sruflyer said:
A student of mine has just purchased a 1978 Piper Turbo Lance II and I was wondering if there was anyone out there familiar with the airframe? I have time in Piper Saratogas, Cherkokee Six 300/260, and a Piper T-Tail Arrow but no time in the Turbo Lance. Any good rules of thumb for the turbo and any quirks I should know about. Thanks in advance.
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I have time in a non-turbo lance, but what I remember is that it just feels like a heavy arrow. Heavier on the controls, sluggish climb (could be different with the turbo) and higher v-speeds. But in the end it flies just like an airplane.
 
Spend some time getting familiar with the takeoff and landing distances and characteristics. In the end it does more or less what the book says it will do, where people scare themselves is thinking otherwise.
 
Make sure to research the turbo setup on this airplane, if it's the engine model I'm thinking of.
A former student of mine was looking at one a few years ago - for some reason I'm thinking it has some wierd setup with no wastegate (?)
Since he's already plunked down the coin for it, make sure he gets a good engine monitor ASAP.
 
Thanks for the info. I've already talked to him about getting a digital engine monitoring for his airplane. I'm mostly worried about keeping the engine happy. All I know is with his two bladed prop I might have to finally invest in a noise cancelling headset.
 
sruflyer said:
I've already talked to him about getting a digital engine monitoring for his airplane.
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That's a lot of money for something unnecessary. If I recall these pipers don't lack a wastegate, they lack an automatic wastegate. Monitor the systems per the POH and you'll be fine. These airplanes weren't falling out of the sky before the advent of the microprocessor.
 
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