Ameriflight PA-31 boneyard

Richman said:
Sadly, just about every other large GA piston twin is heading to the same fate for the same reasons.
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Everything has its time and the time of airplanes with 2 big turbo flat 6s is unfortunately just about done.
 
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Richman said:
Closest I ever got to a Chieftan was a Navajo with the Panther conversion. That thing would go like a scalded cat, and had AC you could hang meat in.
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I always thought a -325 with chieftain engines would be a heckuva personal plane if you had the pockets for it
 
DE727UPS said:
Isn't it cool when you were just starting out you thought a light twin was a big airplane. Thinking, "Man, how great would it be to fly a big plane like that". Those were the days. I almost feel sorry for the zero to hero types who go straight to the airlines that missed out of the "baby steps transition thru the flying career".
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Well, a Ho isn’t a light twin, it’s squarely in the Cabin Class bracket. Though you’re right when your previous twin was a trainer like a Duchess, 700 ponies of turbocharged power feels like a Real Airplane. And that gear handle that has like a 4” throw and actually moves a hydraulic valve instead of a dinky little electric switch
 
Roger Roger said:
Well, a Ho isn’t a light twin, it’s squarely in the Cabin Class bracket. Though you’re right when your previous twin was a trainer like a Duchess, 700 ponies of turbocharged power feels like a Real Airplane. And that gear handle that has like a 4” throw and actually moves a hydraulic valve instead of a dinky little electric switch
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any system where the handle physically moves during the cycles are alright by me
 
MikeD said:
Buckeye, south side of BXK
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Did buckeye recently become a boneyard of some sort? Is there more then Ameriflights pipers there?

When I was a student and instructing out of DVT 2018-19 buckeye airport was super sleepy and had nothing but a few abandoned planes there on the northeast side of the field. Same with Coolidge. We would depart that god forsaken stack at casa grande for the VOR approach into Coolidge and hope a meth head wasn’t occupying the runway. I heard Coolidge also has a good amount of aircraft parked there as of recent.
 
Sculprit said:
Did buckeye recently become a boneyard of some sort? Is there more then Ameriflights pipers there?

When I was a student and instructing out of DVT 2018-19 buckeye airport was super sleepy and had nothing but a few abandoned planes there on the northeast side of the field. Same with Coolidge. We would depart that god forsaken stack at casa grande for the VOR approach into Coolidge and hope a meth head wasn’t occupying the runway. I heard Coolidge also has a good amount of aircraft parked there as of recent.
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It’s only the Chieftains there in storage. Apart from the small air museum there with the largest plane being a C-119, BXK still only has a 5500 x 75 runway, so it and it’s ramp can’t handle much in the way of anything bigger in storage. So yeah, still pretty sleepy here.

Coolidge’s main ramp and southwest side that used to be an old runway, has been carved out to an aircraft storage area. Some Colombian airline A319s, some Spirit A319s, and some Horizon E175s, are in storage there. I use the north/south RW 35 all the time for my training work, remaining south of 5/23 at all times just to stay away from the plethora of flight school planes from the metro PHX area that have permeated all of central and southern AZ….mesquite, Sioux, Oxford, Varney, Aviator, CareerTrack, and a few others that do little more than annoy me. :)
 
Sculprit said:
Did buckeye recently become a boneyard of some sort? Is there more then Ameriflights pipers there?

When I was a student and instructing out of DVT 2018-19 buckeye airport was super sleepy and had nothing but a few abandoned planes there on the northeast side of the field. Same with Coolidge. We would depart that god forsaken stack at casa grande for the VOR approach into Coolidge and hope a meth head wasn’t occupying the runway. I heard Coolidge also has a good amount of aircraft parked there as of recent.
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Westwind?
 
The only thing I miss about piston planes is the sound of 6+ cylinders.
You can keep the rest.
(then put them through a trash shredder)

The only useful piston twin still being made is the high wing the Cape Air uses
(can't remember the name, I'll look it up dater)
((not 100% sure they're even useful))
(((Just use a PC12 and be done with it)))
 
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DropTank said:
The only thing I miss about piston planes is the sound of 6+ cylinders.
You can keep the rest.
(then put them through a trash shredder)

The only useful piston twin stoll being made is the high wing the Cape Air uses
(can't remember the name, I'll look it up dater)
((not 100% sure they're even useful))
(((Just use a PC12 and be done with it)))
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Every once in a while I miss the chieftain. I only wish that I flown one that wasn't an hulled out freighter. The skymaster was a bad twin either. I wish I had gotten to fly one all riley rocketed out.

I'm not sure about going up in a single engine piston though...maybe if the step kid is really wanting to be a pilot. I'd go up with him. South Florida is a single engine piston crash hot spot.
 
DropTank said:
The only thing I miss about piston planes is the sound of 6+ cylinders.
You can keep the rest.
(then put them through a trash shredder)

The only useful piston twin stoll being made is the high wing the Cape Air uses
(can't remember the name, I'll look it up dater)
((not 100% sure they're even useful))
(((Just use a PC12 and be done with it)))
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Tecnam P2012 Traveller?
 
KLB said:
Every once in a while I miss the chieftain. I only wish that I flown one that wasn't an hulled out freighter. The skymaster was a bad twin either. I wish I had gotten to fly one all riley rocketed out.

I'm not sure about going up in a single engine piston though...maybe if the step kid is really wanting to be a pilot. I'd go up with him. South Florida is a single engine piston crash hot spot.
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I survived Pompano, what are the odds
 
KLB said:
The plane I fly is based at FXE. Things are interesting over there. There is everything from 152's to BBJ's operating out of there!
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Turboprop Training: An Intro to Jet Engines | Flying a Turbine

www.officer.com

Report: ICE Sold Drug Smugglers Doomed Jet in 2007

A Tampa-based Immigrations and Customs Enforcement undercover operation sold a Gulfstream II turbojet to suspected drug smugglers shortly before it crashed in Mexico.
www.officer.com www.officer.com

same guy involved in both ‘operations’
 
Back in olden times when I was young, strong and had the vision of an eagle I used to work as a line guy. We had a tenant that used a fleet of 6 or so Chieftans to fly Asian tourists from Burbank to the Grand Canyon every day. My problem was they would all return at about the same time each evening and they'd clog the ramp. I was very adept at moving the airplanes with a tug so one day I approached the owner of the outfit and suggested that I might've, could've, should've moved them two at a time to decrease the congestion on the ramp. He thought that was a fine idea and that's how I used to move two Chieftans with one tug. One on the front and one following. I figured if I kept an eye on the front one the back one wouldn't hit anything, and it didn't.
 
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