Piper Chieftain being considered

Wow what a delicious problem to have. I have experience in the 414,421,king airs, aerostar and the navajo. For my 2 cents I would say it all depends on what the most defining factor is. If you want comfort I would say an older C90 or Cheyenne, a Conquest 1 would be the cats meow as well. If you truly are on a budget and can deal with 185 kts I would say you cant beat a baron. I know its smaller than the rest but you can run one of those all day long for like 300 an hr. It wil be tight but if you dont want your owner to loose their shirts on maint items its the way to go. If they have the bidget for a cabin class twin a 414 with the ramVII is a great plane. Many trips up and down the east coast in one of those. Nice and comfortable and easier to operate than the 421 though the 421 will give you a bit more useful load and speed. If your looking small turbine I would say C90 for reliability and comfort. Then again now your talking about twice the fuel burn as the piston counterparts. Again make sure you do a good review of the logs on anything you look at and make sure that maint hasnt been skimped on. Look for more than just annual inspections being done and so forth.
Keep us informed as I am interested in what you end up with!!
 
Yeah it is kinda neat, although I'm not sure I'm going to be able to fly this gig......yet. I think the Chieftain remains the top pick, just for the larger cabin and flexibility that it offers. I appreciate everyone's input! I'll let you know if we end up buying one!
 
What kind of times do you have? The greater the number of seats, the tougher (usually) it is to get insurance to cover you.

I have a fair (250-300hrs) amount of time in a couple of panther Chieftains (one with one without vortex gens) and could give you some specifics if you ask. Feel free to PM me.

The Chieftain is a good plane to take the weight, but it isn't all that quick. It tends to drink the fuel too (I usaully average 45-50g a hour) If you have the GAMI injectors and run LOP you can get that fuel burn down some though.
 
Pilotbob34 said:
What kind of times do you have? The greater the number of seats, the tougher (usually) it is to get insurance to cover you.

I have a fair (250-300hrs) amount of time in a couple of panther Chieftains (one with one without vortex gens) and could give you some specifics if you ask. Feel free to PM me.

The Chieftain is a good plane to take the weight, but it isn't all that quick. It tends to drink the fuel too (I usaully average 45-50g a hour) If you have the GAMI injectors and run LOP you can get that fuel burn down some though.
Click to expand...
Holy •! 45 gal an hour! You run 35" in cruise? The problem with the pa31, is you can push those throttles all the way forward, and you're going to use a ton of fuel, but still be slow as hell since the thing is a drag machine(which piper is AMAZING at making). Burns tons of fuel, but goes nowhere slooooowly.
 
I ran a few chieftains at around 18 GPH per side. Fairly low altitudes of 8-12k mostly. I liked the 404 a lot better for what I was doing though. The 404 had more room for sure but I was hauling 2k-ish pounds of boxes.

Down side is the 404 has the geared engines.
 
brian434 said:
I ran a few chieftains at around 18 GPH per side. Fairly low altitudes of 8-12k mostly. I liked the 404 a lot better for what I was doing though. The 404 had more room for sure but I was hauling 2k-ish pounds of boxes.

Down side is the 404 has the geared engines.
Click to expand...
That's what we plan for, but we get closer to 14GPH per side at about 55%.
 
You could probably get a burned out, half-destroyed, neglected, ex-cargo MU-2 for the same price as a really nice Panther Chieftan. Throw some beach chairs and "seatbelts" in the back, and you're good to go. When they start complaining about the fuel and MX costs, just ask them whether they REALLY want to cruise down there with the proles.
 
We run ours around 70% and that is usually in the 31"-33" @ 2200 RPM depending on temp and alt. That typically will give me about 20-21 gph per side. If you figure in the taxi, runup and climb it usually averages out to 45-50gph.
 
Well Well Well what happened whats going on what did ya get????? TELLLL MEEEEE!!!!! hehehe just kidding but seriously what did you guys end up with?
 
Nothing so far, but still leaning on the Chieftain side of things. Waiting on the green light from the customer. Go figure
 
One of our T-1040s was/is probably still for sale. It's the pretty one, not the ugly one that I fly every day.

It was listed in Controller recently and it'd do the trick nicely, although personally I think pressurization would be really nice for hauling people.

Chieftain body, PT-6 motors, 225-235kt cruise on 575 (gulp!) pph. With 2400 pounds of fuel and me it'll still carry 900 pounds of freight. We never fill the tips so it'll easily carry 1300 pounds 500 miles.

Might sneak in around the asking price.

Shoot me a PM if you're interested and I'll get you in touch with the owner.
 
a T-1040 sounds awesome! I'm pretty sure I saw you this morning leaving Cirrus. I pulled up on the ramp in front of you in N49KC BE20. How do you like flying that beast?
 
I was lucky enough to have the day off today. That would have been Andy. (We alternate days going up to Mindrot.)

It's a pretty good airplane, actually. Strong, reasonably fast, stable as hell and for what we do with it just about perfect.

If you're carrying people instead of boxes I think it'd make a good short-range shuttle (which is how our other one was primarily used) or stick a belly pod on it and it'd be a great hauler down in the Bahamas.
 
I love our -310 Navajo. It's well maintained and currently maxed out with the best knobs, lights, and levers that Garmin sells. It's not a rocket ship, but it's a good, solid airplane. Enjoyable to fly, and easy to fly well. The 'well maintained part' is a big deal--it's nice to know that everything is 100%; I would honestly not think twice about flying that plane anywhere in the world on a moment's notice. For a 450 mile trip it's definitely not a bad choice.
 
The PA-31-350 is a solid workhorse. It's an honest 200 mph airplane. If you can find one with a BLR kit, you get a gross weight increase to 7368.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top