#66 Flying a 1983 Piper Chieftain to Corona Airport 

Well another one of my long winded stories, but in 1968 I was working at an FBO in Charleston South Carolina. The evening I was working saw the arrival of two major recording artists who were doing shows that night in Charleston. There must’ve been about 2000 very exciting African-Americans as well as some other folks mixed in, when a Learjet arrived and taxied up to the ramp. No question about who that belong to you because his picture was painted on the tail! And the registration number was November 123 JB . It was James Brown! And he went over to the fence to work the crowd crowd he was such a decent human being and so appreciative of his fans. After he loaded up in the limousines and headed out for the venue he was playing, we heard over the intercom that a Chiefton or Navajo landed and was on the way up to the ramp. That aircraft was light yellow and white and had a tweety bird on the tail. Across the side of the fuselage was written in script “Conway Twitty” . Back in the mid to late 60s anybody who wanted to you could just drive onto the ramp. And that’s exactly what happened with Conway Twitty and the James Brown people. One thing I found very amazing was the size of Conway Twitty‘s drummer! This guy must’ve been 300 pounds! Now you have to remember 300 pounds back in the mid 60s was a big giant obese person. Today 300 pounders are everywhere, hell you might be married to one. Everybody took off to do their concerts in their respective venues so I was working and have the opportunity to hang out with the flight crew of Mr. Brown and Mr. Twitty. James Brown’s pilot was a guy named Doug Bell. I believe he owned the plane . The two guys that were flying Conway Twitty and his band explained to me they were Oklahoma National Guard pilots and they were moonlighting for Conway Twitty. Later on that night Mr. Brown and Conway Twitty and his band all arrived about the same time. There had to be more than 4000 Black people holding onto the fence and going hysterical at the sight of James Brown !

Great memories as a child in the 70’s. Space available, my dad would let me fly along on business trips and the company pilot would watch me….I thought he was a god! The company started with an Aztec then eventually moved up to a Chieftain.

And another great video Rich! No time in the Chieftan but cool machine!

Flew those years ago at Ameriflight. Kind of like an SUV of twins....great flying airplane. Brings back memories.

Thanks Rich, Great Co-Pilot

Love the old, big, Piper products. Our club's got a '67 Aztec, outside of a 530 it's basically as it looked in '67 but man I love flying that thing. Fast enough (170 ktas) and will carry anything. I'd love to own a chieftain. Cheers from MYF

Thanks for mentioning the VG kit in this video Rich, much appreciated, and yes the increase in GTOW is 368, N471VA also has the landing weight increase kit installed bringing the max landing weight up to 7368.

Nice flight! Great video.

Cameo of my airplane early in the video. Another nice video, keep ‘em coming.

Another nice video man! I’ve been flying in a Cheiftan with panther upgrade lately and it’s a pretty good plane 🛫😎

never knew they fit that many seats! I'd take most of them out, maybe put a fold out sleeper couch or a mini kitchen/grill and make a true camper/RV out of her! not for 300k though lol.

Wow look at those windows 😍

Thanks Rich. Good to see a 83 Chieftain Bill in Memphis

Great video and a great airplane. It’ll be off the market soon.

Thank you for wealth of info

Sweet ride

Have over a thousand hours in a cheiftan. Also suffered a major engine failure departing kewr. Made it back around to 4r with no problem.(once the flames went out). Built like a $hit brick house.

Nice plane mate 👍👍

Great video, thanks .

Lots of space and seating in this one. I bet it would be quite stable in flight. Thanks Rich

Amaizing!!

I have a lot of memories with Corona. Had to evacuate the airport years ago when the Prado area flooded out. We had aircraft parked on the street adjacent. Used to launch our helo for the air unit with the PD out of there on the south grass. The airport was also part of my beat.

I flew the Chieftan for several years flying high value freight from Seattle to Bay area airports. Nice to fly even in bad weather.

Good video good aircraft

Clean plane mate 👍👍

Boa Noite Donizete Braganca Brazil 🇧🇷✈✈✈ SP

Brings back lots of memories of freight flying and being in conditions that NO ONE should ever put themselves in ,, she got me home every time. I learned how to say NO while flying this type of airplane.

The Chieftain is a tremendous aircraft. There are a lot of people who give them a bad rap. Usually from those who felt trapped from their dreams of flying iron for money, grinding away in clapped out commuters. It's a bit like driving an old sports car. Honest capabilities, with a fussy personality, that gets blown away by contemporary design. Yet, you can round trip it through hell with assured success. It just demands you respect its few needs. They're still out putting in the hard work... Because after all the factors are equated, it's hard to beat. Thanks for taking us for a quick trip, Rich! I hope you find it a good home.

When I was an A&P for an Air Taxi operator in Alaska, the Chieftain was my baby, it was affectionally called the Tundra Taxi. When ever we had a complex or expensive problem to sort out with the other aircraft, the Navajo was always out there, carrying the work load in Bush Alaska.

Bravo

The Navajo is still earning its keep here in Alaska. They have even landed on the ice runway in the Bering Sea during the winter season. They fly out of here in - 30 degree weather. A lot of the villages western Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, Northwestern Alaska and the Northern Villages too. I have flown on them in just about any kind of weather that you could throw at them and they just keep on flying.

Rich, Watched this video on my phone the other day while I was waiting for an appointment, as I mentioned in a previous comment I really enjoy the history lessons you give on these aircraft, this one was particularly interesting. Question I had is how did you get it from Hawaii to California given the distance to fly it ? I live on the east coast in the Maritime provinces ( New Brunswick, Canada) but still realize that is a heck of distance to fly from Hawaii to your location, cheers, Peter

Love the videos rich please keep them coming!

I flew a Chieftain with 15 gal extra fuel in each nacelle tank. Also flew a Navajo Panther with Q tip props and 350 hp engines. Gives about 12 knots over the Chieftain. P-135,

Always enjoyable to watch you jump into a not super familiar airplane and apply your trade. How does a wannabe get to fly right seat? Keep the great entertainment coming.

I would love to buy this aircraft and put into scheduled airline service in our small community. This aircraft would be perfect for the route that I would be looking for. Lovely aircraft!!

Would be interesting to see some Reims Aviation F-Cessnas, like the F406 Caravan II and get some backstory. Europe has tons of French Cessna.

Nice find....love the dive n drive short video....just kidding!

👍👍👍👍👍

Budget way to start your own airline.

Visit the new chencho airport in Mexico.

Would like to see you review a Cessna Titan! Now that's a heck of a twin!

Man that thing has a lot of seats! Didn’t look that big from the outside shots!

That’s what you m talking about. A lot of I Passenger seats with a useful load. More of these. But on the Cheap. We All Want A Deal!

Made one flight in a Chieftain. It belonged to a 135 operator, I got to fly on a dead head trip for maintenance. Definitely a step up from the Cessna Cardinal I was used to flying! First retractable and twin I got to fly. Nice solid flying plane. But, 40 gal/ hr. Wow. Way out of my budget.

It’s a well priced plane if you travel with loads of people.

What is your last count on how many airplanes you have flown. Its awesome

My wife and I want to buy a Navajo at some point, we have 3 big dogs so the smaller ones aren't going to cut it lol! She also really loves how much room this has and the design of it. Question though, are there any pressurized chieftains? I know the P-Navajos are pressurized with the 425hp Engines.

Iconic machine chieftains and Navajos did well in Australia not many around now most are high teen to 20000 plus hours.

You should also do comfort reviews as if you were a passenger

Hello! I see this plane has arrived to chile. Whats the purpose of the arrival? It has been sold?

Don’t do a reduced power takeoff. You’re not allowing the wastegates to open fully. The airplane is designed to takeoff at full power. I know you think it helps save wear and tear on the engines, but reduced power takeoffs actually hurt the engines.

But you could get it down to about 30 GPH at 170 knots.

Nice video but yuv mute engine sound to very low level. Should have allowed some engine noise plus tower comm. Necessary also are engine, wing and instrument views. Thanks

Did it get ferried from Hawaii to CA or do they get crated?

How many passengers can it hold

Why dont you use the crew door

Another workhorse in its time up here Alaska, now replaced by the caravan

It's alarming how many parts are drying up for piper and other airframes.

85 was the last year for Navajo

What haven't you flown?

I can understand the 6 adult's and 4 kid's statement, people these days be eating a little too good, enjoying the videos!

Wish the autopilot in the chief I fly would fly straight.

A NeverGo 😂😂😂

Booooooooooooooooo