September 2004 –
Here’s an airplane that has been literally turning heads for more than 40 years, and for good reason. When Piper launched the first PA-30 Twin Comanche in 1963, it was immediately obvious that this new airplane could do all the things that it was supposed to: it provided speed, efficiency and economy. In short order it was also discovered that this light twin was delivering a few more things that it wasn’t supposed to, but we’ll get to those details later.
In production from 1963 until 1972, the 2,150 Twin Comanches that came out of the Lock Haven, Pennsylvania plant were always good to look at and relatively inexpensive to operate. When Ret Thompson retired from his 37 year career with Northwest Airlines (and the North Central Airlines and Republic Airlines predecessors that he worked for), he looked around for a personal airplane to keep his aviation appetite whetted.
A fellow he knew was selling his 1967 Twin Comanche that had lots of good reasons to give it a close look. Refurbished extensively just a couple of years before, the sleek light twin had an admiral spec sheet.
Exterior paint and a full leather interior headed the cosmetics list, but they held a second-place award when compared to what had occurred to the instrument panel. Totally rebuilt with modern avionics that included an MX-20 multi-function display, a JPI engine monitoring system, a Century 2000 autopilot and a slaved Century NSD 360 HSI, the layout no longer sported the usual hodgepodge of instrument groupings that older airplanes are often found with. The airframe itself had Knots 2 U mods, a long nose and numerous other upgrades.
I took a short flight with Ret and was immediately reminded of my own Twin Comanche days. I had flown one of the very first ones off the line back in 1963 several times to help out a friend (my normal mount in those days was a Piper Apache, so my change of cockpit was a great study in the growth of the Piper family tree).
What had immediately impressed me back then also impressed me in Ret’s airplane—a very quiet cabin, and a very sleek looking airframe that conveyed the sensation of going a couple hundred knots while parked on the ramp. Efficiency, too, was a big, big plus—nearly 170 knots of cruise speed while the 160 horsepower Lycoming fuel injected engines kept their consumption down in the neighborhood of less than 16 gallons per hour (and that’s not per side, folks, that’s the total for both engines)!
There is, of course, a slightly negative side to the airplane, too. The cabin is on the small side, and the cockpit roof line is a little low for us vertically exaggerated pilots. Near to the runway, this close-coupled airplane has some legendary takeoff/landing characteristics that lend itself to wanting to make the twin into a wheelbarrow.
There are a number of tricks to stay off the nosewheel during takeoff and not hitting it first on landing, and Ret (who, last airline assignment, had been on the Boeing 747—surely the ultimate sight-picture adjustment for a pilot to make when going from the biggest from Boeing to Piper’s little Twin Comanche) admits that it took him a good amount of practice to get the proper drill down.
Airspeed control is paramount: if the pilot tries to stay on the runway after the airplane is ready to fly, or put it on the runway much before it isn’t, then the odds for being “on the nose tire” are pretty good. Using less than full flap (or retracting the flaps during the flare, which some pilots do—an expensive technique if you grab the gear handle in error) is something that many Twin Comanche pilots do.
Another good trick to iron out the nose-wheel-to-pavement conundrum is to have what Ret’s Twin Comanche does—the inexpensive STC from Harlan Associates (386-767-5564) that allows a two-inch-smaller nose tire to be fitted to the airframe. Equipped thus, the Twin Comanche has a little more clearance at those critical moments during takeoff and landing.
The Twin Comanche has always been alluded to as a sports car, and, indeed, that feeling comes through loud and clear. The flight controls are light and responsive, and the airplane just feels good in your hands.
The biggest inflight problem comes on the flop side of the efficiency accolades—getting a Twin Comanche slowed down (max landing gear speed is 130 knots) isn’t an easy job, nor one to be put off until late in the flight. Getting this slick little twin into the traffic pattern at the proper altitude/airspeed requires some planning ahead.
One other negative aspect from the Twin Comanche’s history is much of a player anymore since it’s so widely understood. Back in its early days, when the airplane was used extensively as a trainer, Vmc and single-engine stall demonstrations (“Hey, Ralph, let’s see how slow we can get this here twin with only one engine running”) could easily get out of hand and allow the airplane to stall and spin.
There really wasn’t anything wrong with the airplane itself, other than the constraints provided by the usual laws of physics. The bottom-line solution is easy enough for any pilot to incorporate: don’t fly much below the blue-line speed unless you’re on or real close to the runway.
The airplane is mechanically pretty straightforward, although like any of them it’s always best to find a mechanic who has some history with the series unless you want him learning those little tricks and shortcuts on your nickel.
The Lycoming 160 horsepower IO-320 engines have a wonderful reputation of just grinding it out hour after hour, and for being relatively easy to work on if and when it’s necessary. Ret told me that he really likes the airplane, but that he’s actually considering selling it because of its most obvious constraint. With some of the longer trips that he and his wife Julie make to destinations in the north from their Florida home, they have a problem fitting in their baggage and golf clubs in the smallish airframe.
For that reason alone, Ret is considering moving up to something with a bigger cabin and/or a larger baggage area. By the time you read this, an airplane as good looking as this one (it’s got 5,400 hours total time on the airframe, and a little over 1,300 hours on each engine since overhaul) will probably already be sold—but, if you want to give it a try, Ret’s number is (386) 788-1538. At the very least, he’ll be happy to tell you how much he enjoyed the Twin Comanche.
