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Posted In: Michael Ellis
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Participant
Morning Steve,
Nothing special really to tell about her, she was up in the Pacific Northwest for most of her life and down in Muscle Shoals Alabama before I bought her. I got lucky, as it did not take long for me to find her, a couple of weeks is all.
I really did not get a “Formal” pre purchase inspection. She was at a dealership in Oklahoma City and, I again got lucky, as one of my local Mechanics was ferrying a plane out to Southern California. Since he was taking the Interstate 40 route out there and was going to stop for the night somewhere in OK anyway, I asked him to drop in and give me a couple hours looking her over. I was most concerned with any airframe issues as everything else, while expensive, is really bolt on/bolt off. He reported back that he opened up a few inspection ports and she looked very solid. He also had a gander at the logs and they checked as well.
I am based out of Moline, IL and hired another ferry pilots to get her up here and then spent some time with my instructor. In Feb15, I took her to Cliff over at Heritage Aero for her 1st annual under my conservatorship and while it was a doozy, it put her strait and I have had very, very few problems since. As you are aware, they are just built more solid then the follow on aircraft. At it was explained to me, Engineers built the Comanche….after that the accountants took over. 🙂
Please don’t get me wrong, I am not disparaging the follow on Piper aircraft, in order for Piper to stay competitive it needed to happen, but there is a difference between those aircraft built in Lockhaven and those built in Vero Beach. Both are solid but in my opinion, the Lockhaven aircraft are just a smidge more so.
I know this is sacrilege, but I have never been to Airventure and don’t currently have plans to go. Still have kids in the house and if I told my Mrs. that I was going to an airshow for a few days leaving her here alone with the kids and all their activities…..ya you can imagine how that would go. It’s on my bucket list and I will do a Comanche Town as soon as I can.
You and Kristin are the reason I joined, saw a post on the facebook group by Malcolm (I cannot remember his last name right now, but he talks just like John Malkovich) promoting an tech article in the Piper Flyer that Kristin put together.
Happy to be here.
Mike
