Piper Archer II

"RacinBob" (racinbob) 02/14/2019 at 20:14 • Filed to: None

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Makes me want one...

TheRealBicycleBuck > RacinBob 02/14/2019 at 22:10

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Let’s clear up a few things here. Many general aviation aircraft are powered by Lycoming flat fours, including Pipers, Cessnas, Beechcraft, and Grummans. The Diamond DA40 below has essentially the same engine as the old Cherokee I fly.

It’s crazy to think that such a slick plane has the same guts as a plane 40 years older.

There were some differences between the Cherokee and Archer when new, but it’s a little misleading when he talks about avionics. The plane he was flying may have been VFR from the factory. We can’t tell without looking at the build sheet. The panel in the plane is definitely new. No plane built in the ‘60s had flat panel avionics.

The Cherokee I fly is IFR certified and has a moving-map GPS panel, although it’s not the latest equipment . It’s an interesting combination of old and newer avionics.

Although the plane I fly originally didn’t have IFR avionics, they were added a couple of months after it was built. I know this because of the logs. The i tems in the updates to pages 14 and 15 below are all IFR navigation equipment. The pages they are referring to are on the weights & balance sheet. Yes, everything, and I do mean everything is accounted for when they fill out the weights & balance sheet. Making sure that the plane is properly balanced is that important.

One last note. There are a few aircraft that use a piston engine with a transmission. When making horsepower there are four basic approaches: more displacement (bigger cylinders or longer stroke) , more cylinders, more air (forced induction), or more rpm. There’s a maximum speed a propeller can spin before the tips go supersonic, making a lot of noise and losing efficiency. If more rpm is used to make horsepower, a transmission is required to slow the propeller down. Although this is a simple gear reduction unit, in my book that counts!

PyramidHat > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/14/2019 at 23:07

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I wonder if there’d be a significant increase in performance if one installed flush rivets on a PA28, and gave it a good wax job.

Then I wonder about buying a 140, then start looking at 160’s then think I really want the extra useful load of the 180, then I’m looking at Turbo Saratogas, then Pilatus’....

PyramidHat > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/14/2019 at 23:09

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What’s the split switch in the middle?

TheRealBicycleBuck > PyramidHat 02/15/2019 at 00:19

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I’m sure a good cleaning and waxing would help a little, but I doubt it would be a measurable gain.

I keep looking, but I first need to nail down exactly what I want. I could use a bigger plane for trips (family of four), but I really like the idea of a float plane (I live in Louisiana) or a bush plane. I haven’t ruled out experimental, but I also want something IFR capable so I can fly whether the weather is cooperating or not.

Decisions, decisions.

TheRealBicycleBuck > PyramidHat 02/15/2019 at 00:23

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There are two “split” switches (if I’m looking at what I think you are asking about). The red one is battery/alternator. The white one which is showing one off, one on, is the anti-collision lights. The left one is for the tail, the right one is the wingtips. We normally fly with the tail strobe on and wingtips off. At night, the wingtip strobes are turned on once we get into the air.

RacinBob > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/15/2019 at 08:00

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The interesting aspect to me regarding aircraft engines is though physically similar to car engines, they have fundamental differences in application .

1st. They are more like boat engines in that they are running at a high percentage of rated capacity for hours. A car is at a low % of rated capacity most of the time. Plane engines are overbuilt for their HP compared to a car. 

2nd As you mention most don’t have tranmissions so they tend to have a low RPM range. Also I think they limit RPM range to reduce fatigue failures.

3rd. They are designed for extreme reliability because unlike a car, when plane engines break, you usually don’t get to walk home. Hence big bores with slow mov ing parts...

PyramidHat > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/15/2019 at 08:13

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Ah, yes, I know about the power, it was the anti collision...never knew those came with a split switch, the ones I fly are both on or off...

PyramidHat > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/15/2019 at 08:16

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Which is why Jimmy Buffett owns six planes..

TheRealBicycleBuck > PyramidHat 02/15/2019 at 09:03

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That’s interesting. All the Pipers I’ve flown have a split switch. What are you flying that doesn’t?

TheRealBicycleBuck > RacinBob 02/15/2019 at 09:17

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Exactly! A friend of mine likes to call them flying lawnmowers or lawnmowers with wings. Dead simple with extra redundancy.

PyramidHat > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/15/2019 at 22:24

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1980 Warrior II’s and an Archer

TheRealBicycleBuck > PyramidHat 02/15/2019 at 23:09

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Now I want to go crawling around in the rest of the fleet at my flight school. All I’ve flown is Cherokees and an Archer and I’m pretty sure they all had split switches.