Piper Lance pros/cons?

Hi Frode,

We bought a '78 turbo T-tail 2 years ago. I had some time in the
non-turbo T-tail several years before, so flying the T is normal to me
-- never had any problems with handling. I fly out of a 2100 foot strip
(http://www.airnav.com/airport/L18).

With six 170 pound adults on board, I could only carry about 43 gallons
in our Lance. But that is still enough fuel to go just about anywhere
we would want to go in Southern California, with reserves. For an
occasional flight with 6 adults, this is fine. If you routinely want to
fly 6 adults on longer cross country flights with luggage, then you may
want to consider something else.

As a family of 4, with a petite wife and 2 kids in the 9/10 age range,
this airplane gives us lots of flexibility. The four of us plus grandma
and grandpa and bags for a 3 day weekend works out just fine.

I put together a simple Excel spreadsheet that lets me plug in numbers
for various passenger(we have club seating) and baggage loads to see how
much fuel I can carry . You are welcome to play around with it to see
how the airplane would fit your needs. I've just put up a REALLY basic
web page that has the spreadsheet and some photos of our Lance at

http://www.4-fs.com/lance

One of these days I'll put up some better organized info and pictures.

I've never flown the Cherokee 6, so I can't give you any objective
comparsion info. In the Lance you are limited to 100 pounds in the
front baggage compartment and 100 pounds in the rear baggage area.

Steve


Frode Berg wrote:
Hi!

I just started looking at the Piper Lance.
It looks nice performance wise (both Turbo and non turbo model) and it looks
like a more natural next step for someone like me owning an old Arrow with
the retracts than the Cherokee 6's.

Anyone got any pros or cons regarding this model?

How does the weight loading add up?
Can you carry fuel for any range with 6 adults in it?

What are the major advantages to this compared to the 6? Major
disadvantages?
Not the abvious has retract=more expensive to insure....

I like having a retract, so I'd actually rather continue with that.
Any reason why there are so few of these compared to other Pipers on the
used market? Produced a limited time? Reason for this?

Thanks for any input, and I'd love to come in contact with any Lance owners
for some discussions.

Thanks,

Frode Berg
LN-LMR