I learned to fly in one of these - my uncle had one. He owned it in the 1970s and for a long time, sold it and traded to bigger planes for years, but then downsized and actually reacquired his own Twin Comanche he had owned before. When he passed away it was sold. Great airplane. It has some oomph to it, not at all like flying a 172!!
So... Com done.. Looking for twin hours after my initial twin conversion - An owner approached me and said I could do the PA 30 conversion he'd pay for it if I would do a job for him after. I jumped at the opportunity...!! Nice PA 30 with wing tip tanks. The job was to ferry his other Twin Comanche across the southern part of Africa - from Namibia to Durban South Africa. A seven hour trip non =stop..!!! So I had ample solitary time to make friends with this little twin..... and I LOVED IT...!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing.
Nice bird, owned an Apache 235, flew an Aztec and a Navajo for owners, last flew a Golden Eagle Cessna 421B. All great stable birds. Always wanted to try one of these. Isn’t the wing a laminar design? What year and engines does this have? Thank you too, nice video.😊 I had heard that one of the successive companies to own Piper destroyed all the original manufacturing drawings of the older planes under the excuse of not having data in a lawsuit. However as I restored my old Apache 235 partially I can tell you they were build with great structural integrity in my opinion. They were designed to handle grass and unimproved fields too. My bird is still flying up in OH. Wished I never sold it but sooner or later as owner/pilots, you can run out of money.
The one my fbo rented out was at/past tbo and kinda weak. Always was sure to stay ahead of the power curve on approach, if you got behind it would sink right down to the deck at full throttle .
Love the PA-30, such a beautiful bird. I wish piper would bring back the design or another manufacturer would buy the plans and market it. Even compared to the new light twins like the DA42 the Twin Comanche still holds its own. Such a shame to shelf such a wonderful design.
Great airplane. Fuel efficient. But, according to some folks at Piper I talked to after they had discontinued production the design was too costly to manufacture.
@@trehl639True about the flood. The loss of the tooling was critical to the decision to discontinue; however, Piper was already working on a replacement light twin. During the last couple of years at Lockhaven and for several years after the move to Vero Beach I was part of the video crew that produced the showroom videos that Piper produced each year. Later, with a partner we owned a twin Comanche. Great airplane.
Stephen Reddin that's used to see which engine failed. It's really only useful for training. Flying the plane when an engine failed will have an immediate yaw impact which is really hard to not notice and act upon. I personally never even notice the string
