Simviation Forum - Piper single engine low wings

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Piper single engine low wings (Read 679 times)

Jul 29^th, 2012 at 12:40am

wahubna Offline
Colonel
WMU Bronco
Michigan

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Posts: 1064

I spent a couple of days at the aviation mecca known as Oshkosh this week and as I sat on the flight line for hours and hours watching planes of all shapes and sizes come and go I realized something....Nice Piper singles with low wings (like the Cherokee) are rare. Honestly, I saw only one that looked nice, the rest looked, lets just say used. Cessnas on the other hand usually looked wonderful (with one horrible exception in the vintage area). Mooneys were a mix, some were great, some looked like a Cherokee Grin

So my question is, why do Cherokees, Arrows, etc so often look worn out?
I love one response I got when I asked some others about it: "Its a Piper, you buy a Piper to beat the $hit out of it!"

‎"At that time [1909] the chief engineer was almost always the chief test pilot as well. That had the fortunate result of eliminating poor engineering early in aviation."- Igor Sikorsky

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Reply #1 - Jul 29^th, 2012 at 10:21am

DaveSims Offline
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Clear Lake, Iowa

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Posts: 2453

Of all the lovely Cessnas you saw, how many were from the 70s and how many were from the 40s and 50s. Most GA aircraft from the 70s and 80s are generally looked at as workhorses or basic transportation, while aircraft from the 40s, 50s, and 60s are more regarded as antiques these days. Piper in that time period was still more into high wing aircraft.

Or maybe its just because aircraft of Cherokee lineage just don't have enough personality to be worth restoring. Wink

Dave

www.flymcw.com

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Reply #2 - Aug 15^th, 2012 at 2:44pm

Mictheslik Offline
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Me in G-LFSM :D
Bristol, England

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Posts: 6011

Early cherokees look gorgeous if properly looked after, but as mentioned above, many get pounded into the ground at flying school etc.

I fly a 1970 PA28-180 with an extra upper window mod and it's beautiful Kiss

.mic

[center]

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Reply #3 - Aug 15^th, 2012 at 3:19pm

wahubna Offline
Colonel
WMU Bronco
Michigan

Gender:
Posts: 1064

I saw Cessna's there covering just about every decade. I saw a few that looked used yes, but almost all the Piper's looked beat to hell. Yes a FEW looked good (obviously brand new ones looked decent too).

My uncle had a 182 from the the mid 70s, so she was right in that 'work horse' range but still, he cared for it. He did a fare amount of skin work on it, livened up the interior, and kept the engine nice and clean. He had a Cassutt while he had the 182 so for him, the 182 WAS the family flying 4-door sedan. He took it down to Florida a few times, visited my cousins at college, and did several family trips with it. Still it looked fairly good....a lot better than those Cherokees! Grin

To the Piper lineage's credit, you must have designed a good aircraft if they can handle years and years of heavy use and still work just fine. They seem to just never die! Grin

Come to think of it...no other group of airplanes looked as used as the Piper low wings Shocked

‎"At that time [1909] the chief engineer was almost always the chief test pilot as well. That had the fortunate result of eliminating poor engineering early in aviation."- Igor Sikorsky

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