October 2005- Few airplanes qualify as icons: Say the name, and everyone (within reason) will know what you mean, though this can sometimes be misleading.
Say “Cessna,” and everyone will assume you mean a high-wing, fixed-gear single. Say “Cherokee” and you must be talking about a low-wing single, fixed-gear single. There are exceptions in each case—Cessna 210’s and Piper Arrows are both retractables—but you get the idea.
Say “Warrior,” though, and you’ll get a different reaction. People who know a little about airplanes will say, “Isn’t that a Cherokee?” And they’ll be right… mostly.
People who know more will ask whether you mean the airplane or the wing. That’s because the semi-tapered “Warrior Wing” introduced in 1974’s PA-28-151 Warrior has since been used in almost all of Piper’s piston singles and twins, replacing the earlier, constant-chord Hershey Bar wing design that had been a common feature on just about every metal-skinned Piper except the Comanche.
The Hershey Bar wing used on earlier Cherokees (and early Arrows, the Cherokee Six/Lance, and assorted other Piper airplanes) had some good points. It was short—wingspan on the original PA-28 Cherokee of 1961 was just 30 feet. That made for easy ground handling, and offered a good roll rate if you were willing to use a little muscle. And with full flaps, you could easily generate a high rate of descent.
The simple design was also easy to manufacture, which helped Piper keep costs down. By the 1970s, though, the Hershey Bar made Pipers airplanes look dated compared to the competition. The company decided to give its airplanes a better-looking wing and (arguably) improve handling in the process—but it didn’t want to completely retool the production line.
Piper compromised with a semi-tapered wing design: the wing root and inner panels are identical to the Hershey Bar, but the outer wing panels are 2½ feet longer on each side, with a tapered design that looks quite a bit nicer. Balanced ailerons are fitted that don’t offer quite as much roll response, but have a lighter feel, and stall speed is reduced by a few knots.
The result isn’t a huge change—I learned on a Warrior and had no trouble at all transitioning to the Hershey Bar wing when I bought an older Cherokee (and later an Arrow) but it’s noticeable, especially on a short-field takeoff.
Aside from the new wing, the Warrior used the longer fuselage introduced on the PA-28-180 Challenger in 1973. This gave backseat passengers a great deal more room than they had on earlier models. It retained the “Model-A Ford” style hinged cowling that makes a full preflight so easy (I wish my Arrow had the same cowl).
Power was provided by a 150 hp Lycoming O-320, which my mechanic describes as “bulletproof,” and 50 gallons of fuel (48 usable) is carried in two wing tanks. The result was a comfortable (if not particularly fast), four-seat airplane.
Useful load was about 950 pounds, so you could carry four people (if they weren’t too heavy) plus full fuel. There was a decent sized baggage compartment behind the back seats, but if you’re going to put much back there you’ll need to leave a passenger behind or put in fuel “to the tabs” (35 gallons).
The O-320 sips fuel, so even at a cruise of around 115 knots you can expect range up to 650 miles (no reserve), though if you’re going to fly that far you’d better bring a relief bottle—it will take over five and half hours!
In 1977, Piper upgraded to a 160 hp version of the O-320, creating the PA-28-161 Warrior II. This increased useful load to almost 1,100 pounds, and supposedly increased cruise speed by about four knots. I have a lot of time in a Warrior II and I never saw that speed, but the airplane I was flying had seen a lot of use.
In 1995, New Piper Aircraft cleaned up the control panel, fitted a 28-volt electrical system, and added a lot of soundproofing to create the Warrior III. Useful load dropped to 900 pounds, but the other specifications are basically unchanged, and it remains in production to this day.
What you’ll find in the panel varies: Today’s Warrior III comes standard with old-fashioned round gauges, a single Garmin GNS 430 GPS Nav/Com and a four-place intercom. Avidyne’s FlightMax Entegra “glass panel” flight deck is available as an option, and these are starting to work their way into university flight departments: starting last fall, Piper sold at least 14 Entegra-equipped Warriors to Dowling College, Ohio University and The University of North Dakota.
You’ll find a wide range of different radios in older Warriors, though most were originally built with King equipment. Most (though not all) are IFR-equipped. The Warrior has stayed in production so long because it works: it’s a genuinely effective, entry-level four-place single.
It’s not fast, and reaching the 11,000 foot service ceiling can take quite a while if it’s fully loaded, but a Warrior will take you just about anywhere if you’re patient.
Prior gripes and tips
I’ve said a lot of nice things about Warriors so far—now for the downside. Every flight instructor and copilot who spends time in Warriors (or other Cherokees) must curse the door. There’s only one, and it’s on the copilot’s side. That means the copilot has to wait until everyone else gets in the airplane (an umbrella is a handy accessory if it’s raining).
After a few years, the seal around that door starts to leak, and even after it’s closed, the copilot can expect to get dripped on. The copilot also gets to hold that door open during taxi on hot days, unless you’re lucky enough to have factory-installed air conditioning, which was supposedly an option on Warrior IIs and IIIs. (I’ve never actually seen it in a Warrior, it’s a lot more common in Archers and Arrows.)
Next gripe: What was Piper thinking with the Warrior’s landing gear? The nosewheel steering is precise, but the level of pedal pressure required in most Warriors is heavy—much heavier than in older Cherokees. I’m not sure why this is, but it’s a problem on all the Warriors, Archers and Arrows I’ve flown.
Like other fixed-gear Cherokees, the Warrior’s main gear feature large oleo struts. They’ll take an unbelievable amount of abuse (a good thing, since most Warriors have been abused at one time or another) but over time they tend to get gummed up a bit, and as you turn off the runway, you’ll find one wing high and the other low.
James Ellis recommends a cure for this in his book, “Buying and Owning Your Own Airplane”: Get a small bottle of hydraulic fluid from your mechanic, and when you find a strut hanging up, use a little fluid on a clean rag to scrub the strut. I did that with some success on my Cherokee 140 and 180, and it certainly ought to work on a Warrior, which has the same strut design.
Whether you can see the strut (much less reach it) will depend on whether you have the late model wheel fairings installed. They’re surprisingly effective—removing them cuts cruise speed by some seven knots according to the Warrior II POH—but completely cover the strut and brake. Most flight schools remove them so that students can do a proper preflight inspection on the brakes and tires.
Landing gear strut cylinders on most Warriors (and a lot of other fixed-gear Cherokees) are subject to a service bulletin (SB 1131) recommending repetitive inspection of the upper torque link attach lug for cracks every 100 hours. Most Warrior IIIs have forged strut cylinders and are exempt, and Piper is making forged cylinders available to replace the cast cylinders on older airplanes.
Another service bulletin (SB 886) recommends removing the wing for spar inspection every 1,600 hours on any PA-28 that has a serious damage history or has seen “extreme use.”
Starting a Warrior—especially an older model with a 12-volt electrical system (and in the very early ones, aluminum wiring) can be difficult. A trick that I learned was to skip using the primer on anything but very cold days, and instead to shove the throttle quickly up and back once or twice while cranking the engine—don’t do it three times or you’re liable to flood the engine.
The electric fuel pump on the Warrior should be on prior to engine start (that way, you can tell that it’s operating), and then off during taxi (so you can verify that the mechanical pump works too). It goes back on after engine run up and gets turned off again at cruise altitude. It should be on again during a landing approach and at various times Piper has recommended turning it on when changing fuel tanks.
Which brings me to one of the Warrior’s few weak spots as a trainer: Like all Cherokees, it lacks a “both” position on the fuel selector. Student pilots regularly forget to switch tanks—leading to poor trim and (worst case) possible fuel exhaustion. To fight this, I was taught to change tanks every half-hour. When the minute hand on your watch (or the ship’s clock) points to the left, use the left tank, when it points right, use the right tank.
When you change tanks, it’s a good idea to look at the engine gauges on the lower part of the panel in early model Warriors. They’re below the line of sight and easily missed. Descents are pretty simple—Piper recommends reducing power to 2,500 rpm and putting the nose down to Vno (top of the green arc) which is 126 knots (in rough air you’ll want to slow to Va, which varies from 88 to111 knots depending on the weight).
Approach speed is typically 70 knots, slowing to 63 knots (with full flaps) on final. The Warrior Wing pays off in short- (and soft-) field takeoffs. It starts to develop useful lift as soon as you hit the white arc. On a soft-field takeoff, you can use this to unload the nosegear, preventing any tendency to “wheelbarrow.”
Both soft-field takeoffs and short-field takeoffs involving an obstacle are done with 25 degrees of flap (second notch), but the Warrior II POH recommends no flaps at all for a short-field takeoff if there are no obstacles. The downside of the Warrior Wing is a tendency to “float,” which leads to long landings if no flaps are used on final.
The Warrior II POH recommends full flaps whenever possible. With flaps, it’s easy to land a Warrior, but consistently greasing the landing takes practice. Carry a little power—not much, just a bit more than idle—through the landing flare.
If you’re doing a touch-and-go, remember to lower the flaps before taking off again. If not, you’ll get into ground effect quickly but wonder why the airplane won’t climb. Crosswind landing performance of Warriors is outstanding, extending to crosswind components up to 17 knots (don’t try it with full flaps).
Push in enough rudder to line up with the runway, hold off the low wing with the yoke, and adjust power to hold your glideslope. As you get into ground effect, the wind usually eases up, and you can ease off on the rudder to make a decent landing in anything short of a hurricane.
Many aftermarket modifications are available for Warriors. LP Aero Plastics offers ¼” windshields, which reduce wind noise in the cabin. Knots 2U has gap seals, fairings and thin-line strobes for the Warrior. Laminar Flow Systems has gap seals, fairings, and wheel pants. LoPresti offers wingtips, fairings, wheel caps, hinge fairings and gap seals. RMD Aircraft Lighting offers wingtips with built-in landing and recognition lights.
Pilots who want to practice flying a Warrior using a desktop PC have a number of options. ASA offers an excellent simulation of a Warrior II in version 8.0 of their On-Top IFR flight simulator. For Microsoft Flight Simulator users, SurClaro offers what looks like an accurate Warrior II in its Perfect Flight-General Aviation, a $19.99 add-on product for Flight Simulator 2002 (I am not sure whether it works with Flight Simulator 2004).
John D. Ruley is a freelance writer, instrument-rated private pilot, and volunteer pilot for LIGA International (ligainternational.org). Send questions or comments to editor@www.piperflyer.com.
Resources
ASA On-Top 8.0
asa2fly.com
Avidyne FlightMax Entegra
avidyne.com
Knots 2 U (Speed Mods)
knots2u.com
Laminar Flow Systems (Speed Mods)
laminarflowsystems.com
LoPresti Speed Merchants (Speed Mods)
speedmods.com
LP Aero Plastics
lpaero.com
Piper Aircraft, Inc. Warrior III
piper.com
RMD Aircraft Lighting (Wingtips with Integrated Landing and Position Lights)
rmdaircraft.com
SurClaro Perfect Flight-GA
surclaro.com
