Piper Lance

Kingairer

Kingairer

'Tiger Team' Member
ANyone have any experience in a Piper Lance. What kind of speed can you get out of it? Will it carry 4 people, bags and fuel?
 
I've got 600 hours in a straight tail/Hershey bar wing. It was a 150ish knot airplane on about 16.5 GPH. You could put 4 people in it, their stuff, and top the tanks. Not a great climber or runway performer (and I think the T-tails are even worse) but an excellent cross country plane for the family if you removed the middle row of seats.

Had some issues with the landing gear and a leaky inboard fuel tank but overall the thing was an absolute tank and a nice flying, stable, and honest airplane.
 
I was getting 190knots in a cirrus yesterday at 12.3 gallons per hour.







but we had a 40 knot tail wind:bounce:. Still 150 kts at 12.3 gallons per hour aint bad.
 
I've been looking for something along the lines a Lance...it's hard to justify spending six figures on a 40 year old airplane when you can get a 13 year old Cirrus SR-22 that does nearly the same job for the same money.
 
CK said:
I've been looking for something along the lines a Lance...it's hard to justify spending six figures on a 40 year old airplane when you can get a 13 year old Cirrus SR-22 that does nearly the same job for the same money.
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I'm seeing the lance at $79-100k and older circus at $150-200k.
 
Kingairer said:
ANyone have any experience in a Piper Lance. What kind of speed can you get out of it? Will it carry 4 people, bags and fuel?
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The Lance, even more so than most Hershey bar Pipers, is a very safe airplane.

When you lose the engine, it flies like a safe.

IMO, when it comes to Lances, avoid the Ts. No turbos. No T-tails.
 
Gear limit switches seem to be persnickety on the Piper retracts. I see quite a bit of continuous in-transit lights and gear indicator light issues in these types.
 
I don't have experience with the lance but almost 1000 hours flying and thousands more wrenching on its stiff-leg brother the Cherokee 6. Good honest reliable hard-working airplane, that will carry everything including the kitchen sink and can be kept flyable by a chimp with a Northern Tool socket set. Flies good, unless you're tall visibility on landing can be an issue, as can pitch authority with a light load (nose heavy). Requires an authoritative right leg on takeoff. I'd imagine the Lance trades some of the useful load and reliability for a few knots of speed.
 
I would go with the Cherokee 6 over the Lance. Just don't think there's enough of a gain with the gear going up and down to justify the extra insurance and Mx cost.
The 6 is a workhorse with reasonable performance. I've flown both the straight and T-tail Lance. The T- tail was a handful, especially balked landings or go arounds. Had to be very observant when teaching in that airplane and ready to literally floor the right rudder if the student was timid.

Bp244
 
The t tail Lance might be one of the worst airplanes ever built... Only barely edging out the Christmas bullet.

There were a limited number of fixed gear Saratogas built or the Cherokee six or the retract Saratoga, or the straight tail Lance, in that order.
 
Somebody is cashing in their profit check I see!!

The Commache is a better plane, problem is the parts availability. Think of a Piper product as a Ford and Beech as a Mercedes. Beech really does make an incredibly well flying airplane. The Debonair is a nice plane the issue is the engine has a low TBO and you have to do a top overhaul halfway through.

If I won the lottery I would buy a Twin Commanche.
 
wheelsup said:
Somebody is cashing in their profit check I see!!

The Commache is a better plane, problem is the parts availability. Think of a Piper product as a Ford and Beech as a Mercedes. Beech really does make an incredibly well flying airplane. The Debonair is a nice plane the issue is the engine has a low TBO and you have to do a top overhaul halfway through.

If I won the lottery I would buy a Twin Commanche.
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Profit sharing check? I'm not buying an RC plane :)
I don't think I convince the wife yet...trying to ease into it, and a local FBo has a lot of airplanes to chose from one being a lance and another a Bonanza. Don't have experience in either.
 
I flew a Cherokee Six for maybe 20 hrs. Not a lot but enough to know it's like a 1978 Ford F100. Picture a Piper Cherokee just a little bigger. Yes they can carry a lot and are decently comfortable. But they're slow and fly like crap. They just kinda lumber along.

I have around 750 hrs in an A36. It would be more like a Mercedes E series.

The Beech is an amazing product. Parts are expensive (but fortunately aren't needed too much) and save for their flight control corrosion issue which can be priced in I would pick Beech.

Run the numbers on W&B and see which one would fit your needs.
 
The last lance I ferried was around 150KTAS for 14gph. Can't really tell you much about the useful load, as I didn't look too hard at it. My mission was not adults and bags but rather full tanks, the trained chimp flying it and a suitcase. It is a slow climber and flies like any other Piper product.

Lately I've been flying a G36 Bonanza and seeing 155-165KTAS for around 12.5-15gph. Climbs and flies much nicer, but it is a different price point.


Sent from my Startac using Tapatalk.
 
CK said:
I've been looking for something along the lines a Lance...it's hard to justify spending six figures on a 40 year old airplane when you can get a 13 year old Cirrus SR-22 that does nearly the same job for the same money.
Click to expand...
Parachutes are totally trendy. In all honesty, for similar money, a plane in its teens with that kind of avionics versus an older Piper with the mx required for gear / etc is an easy decision.
 
About 800 hours in the straight and T-tail Lance. Great plane. Remember getting 140-160 or so out of the thing, but can't remember how much cargo I was hauling in the back weight-wise, though I was always cubed-out. Last Lance flight was 1995,
 
Kingairer said:
Profit sharing check? I'm not buying an RC plane :)
I don't think I convince the wife yet...trying to ease into it, and a local FBo has a lot of airplanes to chose from one being a lance and another a Bonanza. Don't have experience in either.
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The Bonanza is so much nicer. You're already spending a lot of money to rent one may as well get the nicer plane.
 
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