Piper Lance

I have some students that own one in a partnership. It always seemed like a good performer for money. They have a non turbo non t-tail version.
 
I have some students that own one in a partnership. It always seemed like a good performer for money. They have a non turbo non t-tail version.

I still have nightmares about working on the turbo version. Someone at Piper put the crack pipe down and said "We put a T- tail on it and made it terrible, now lets turn the cooling path around too..."

Sadly, the last Lance I worked on was this one:

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2015/12/piper-pa-32rt-300t-turbo-lance-ii.html

You want to go out and be a complete moron by yourself be my guest. Murdering your family is inexcusable.
 
My old club bought a Lance when the Avionics shop trashed our Mooney. I only got about 3 hours in it, much thirstier than the Mooney but lots of room. Rate was $156 wet, but that was $50 more than the Mooney so it rarely got flown. They paid $56k for it with 300 hours left before TBO, an expired IFR, Expired ELT, out of annual, 1978 Panel with an old king stack, no GPS and a suspect AP.
 
Lances are the retract equivalent of a Cherokee 6. Fat wing. Turbo/non-turbo/normal/t-tail.

There are all permutations of Saratoga, which is the same airframe with the taper wing. Fixed, retract, NA, turbo.

All are good airplanes, but if you go the turbo route on the Lance, get a good pre-buy (which is what you should do for any airplane).

Be sure they pull the tanks and comply with SB1006 to check for spar corrosion.
 
A C210 will go about 10-15 kts faster than a Lance for a given fuel burn. The C210 gear is a real weak point. It's probably better in Turbo form for a long IFR travel machine.

I do like the rear door on the Piper models. Way easier to load/unload. Much better design.

If you're not traveling too far buy a Cherokee 6. Way better bang for the buck. 140-ish ktas vs 150 for the Lance and 160 for the C210.
 
Also if you want 4 people plus bags try to find one without club seating. Gives you room for as much luggage as 4 pax could possibly want, and riding backwards tends to make infrequent fliers airsick.
 
I'm seeing the lance at $79-100k and older circus at $150-200k.
I fly the cirrus about 100 hours a year. I've helped a friend through the buying process and have become familiar with it. Every airplane has its gotchas to watch out for. With retractable gear planes, insurance goes up, but the biggest gotcha is the mx. Not only does more crap break, theres more AD's out on most of these types of planes. That gets costly. Specially the older the plane. The way I would decide is go thru the mx process for the planes youre considering.

A 2005 or 2006 cirrus is not a bad value for what you are getting. The airplane has taken the majority of its hit on depreciation, the parachute has most likely been replaced which is a $11,000 cost. With an SR22, you're getting a 165+ knot airplane for 12-15 gallons per hour. Things I would stay away from is the Turbo model unless you're planning 50% of the flights to be 400NM or more. The G1000 version will fetch $50,000 more, those hold their value pretty well and sell first.
 
T-tail Lance doesn't like turbulence at all. The tail is sometimes too small to handle the yaw produced by a strange dutch-roll due to the turb.

You won't suffer as long as you are seated right over the CG. Not the same with the rear seated passengers, bring bags.

There's a workaround though: Be firm on the rudder Do not correct the yaw, it would do one or two cycles in yaw and then be back to center. This is always with the T-tail, non turbo, square wing.

Having said that, it's a fantastic x-country airplane, fast like no other in the same category, carry lots of fuel, and great, great sound for the chicks in the apron.

It's one airplane empty, and another airplane at full load, the trim is going to be mightly different for both scenarios (a little gotcha!).
 
C210=Lance
C182=Piper Arrow
C172=PA28-141

Is this about right?

Not exactly:

C152 = Tomahawk = Skipper

C172 = Warror/Cherokee 160 = Beech Muskateer/Sport

C172SP = Archer/Cherokee 180 = Beech Sundowner

C172RG = Arrow (kinda 180hp vs 200hp) ='Beech Sierra

C182 = Dakota/Cherokee 235

C206 = Saratoga (FG)/Cherokee 6

C210 = Saratoga (RG)/Lance (sorta kinda, but not really)

Some airplanes didn't have direct competitors. Commanches were sorta like Bonanzas, but not really. No real equivalent to the 182RG. I'm not even going to go into the innumerable Mooneys or other less common brands like Navions or Meyers. Some older models were never replicated, like the Beech Musketeer Super 3...fixed gear, but 200 hp with an optional pilot side door.

Richman
 
Close:

C-150 = Le Car

C-172 = pedal boat

C-172SP = porcine lipstick

C-182 = wheelbarrow

C-206 = C-206

C-207 = C-206+1

C-208 = Vista Cruiser

C-210 = Lamborghini Tractor

C-320 = Jerry's party barge.
 
Close:

C-150 = Le Car

C-172 = pedal boat

C-172SP = porcine lipstick

C-182 = wheelbarrow

C-206 = C-206

C-207 = C-206+1

C-208 = Vista Cruiser

C-210 = Lamborghini Tractor

C-320 = Jerry's party barge.
You know there was a "Le Car" when I was a kid!
 
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