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#201
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Cherokee 235 vs Trinidad vs Comanche
Margy Natalie wrote:
Look, I'm just a sweet, innocent, little thing and didn't have any idea you boys would look at it this way (why I thought you were any different from ...., oh well). This should read... "Look, I'm just a sweet, innocent, school teacher, little thing..." |
#202
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Cherokee 235 vs Trinidad vs Comanche
john smith wrote:
Margy Natalie wrote: Look, I'm just a sweet, innocent, little thing and didn't have any idea you boys would look at it this way (why I thought you were any different from ...., oh well). This should read... "Look, I'm just a sweet, innocent, school teacher, little thing..." I actually quit teaching this year. Now I'm just a sweet, innocent, docent program manager at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, National Air and Space Museum. I guess I could still use the teacher line as I'm in the education department and my license is still good. Margy |
#203
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Cherokee 235 vs Trinidad vs Comanche
This is so true. At my airport there are two L-39s parked right next to my Grumman. I can honestly say those L-39s fly less total hours in the past two years than what I typically fly in a month. If I were the owners of those L-39s, I would be nervous taking the plane out if I let them sit for that long. Who knows what would break and make a big smoking hole on the ground. I was drooling over some of the L-39s that were coming on the market so cheaply a while back, but someone (I believe it was Jose) pointed out how expensive they were to maintain and operate. What good does a go-fast do me if I can't afford to fly it? |
#204
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Cherokee 235 vs Trinidad vs Comanche
I'm sure everyone here has his fantasy of what to get if winning the lotto. If a few million bucks suddenly show up in my bank account, the most I'll get would be a single engine turboprop, a PC-12 or something like that. Even in the world of turbine, it's hard to beat the cost efficiency of single engine prop. This is never, ever the case with a jet. A jet can save you time but will always cost more in money. |
#205
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Cherokee 235 vs Trinidad vs Comanche
"Douglas Paterson" wrote in message
. .. Hello, All! About a year ago, I started airplane shopping. [snipped my story & request for info on & comparisons between the three subject aircraft] Thank you everyone who took the time to consider & reply--I got some great information. While nothing's written in stone, and I still have some learning to do before I actually write a check (and time is the issue there--I firmly belief that "W-O-R-K" belongs in with all the other four-letter-words), it's helped me reach at least a couple of conclusions: - I still like the Comanches, but an apples-to-apples comparison between those and the Trinidads favors the Trins - I need to learn more about the Bonanza--from Newps' discussion points, I may have overlooked a winning candidate - I need to learn more about the Pathfinder--from Jay's discussion points, it sounds like there are multiple flavors of the Cherokee 235 out there; if I find that the Pathfinder meets my climb/ceiling/high elevation/high DA needs, I may well stick with fixed gear after all Once again, super input from the group. Thank you! -- Doug "Where am I to go/Now that I've gone too far?" -- Golden Earring, "Twilight Zone" (my email is spam-proofed; read the address and make the appropriate change to contact me) |
#206
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Cherokee 235 vs Trinidad vs Comanche
A final word, then. You're not getting married; you're buying a
flying vehicle. If it turns out it doesn't fit your mission or your mission changes, sell it and buy something else. Only thing wrong with that advice -- when I got married, I thought the mission was changing, and I sold the Taylorcraft and bought a Stinson. Thirty years later, I've still got the same wife, I've got shares in other airplanes, but I sure miss the Taylorcraft every warm sunny day. Don |
#207
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Cherokee 235 vs Trinidad vs Comanche
Douglas Paterson wrote: The Socata Trinidad (TB-20) seems to pretty closely match or slightly exceed the Comanche's performance numbers. For a comparably equipped Comanche, they seem to cost (acquisition) about the same. Meanwhile, the Trinidad is a 20-year-younger airplane, with cheaper insurance and (I'm given to believe) cheaper maintenance due to (a) ease of access and (b) availability of parts. Plus, the gull-wing doors are appealing to me (ease of entry/exit, not to mention "cool factor"). Can anyone weigh in here, either to confirm these observations or to squash my newbie analysis? Other thoughts? I had 2 customers that owned Socatas. One sold his because he wanted something faster and the other because he couldn't afford to keep it. Parts come from France and they are priced accordingly. Windshield was over $1200 fob France when one owner over aggressively tried to de-ice his plane. Most of the screws are metric on the airframe, not standard AN hardware. The ailerons are actuated with a torque tube and push-pull tubes in the wings. The quality of the torque tube was lacking where it was attached to the yokes via a u-joint. Prior to the customer buying the plane someone had tried to drill out the u-joint rivets and replace them with bolts. Things wallowed out again and the torque tube assembly needed to be replaced. The maintenance manuals are translated from French into English. Interesting reading at best. In order to replace the tube the entire bottom cover on the tunnel between the pilot and co-pilot seats had to be removed. The tunnel is made of thin steel - not aluminum! After drilling out dozens of rivets the tube was accessible. I don't recall what it cost but it was an expensive piece of metric sized chrome moly which had to be match drilled to the u-joint. It did not come pre-assembled. . The job was time consuming because clearly Socata didn't design the plane with this particular repair in mind. While it may be a new design, if you pull the tail cone off you will see a stabilator trim mechanism which looks EXACTLY like the ones found on a Piper Cherokee. Over all the airplanes were not bad to work on. They both had IO540 Lycomming engines on a tubular mount with removable top and bottom cowl pieces. Once removed everything was easily accessible. The underside of the fuselage was a bit crowded and required the removal of dozens of easily stripped metric screws to drop the access covers. I never had the opportunity to fly one but the owners told be they were very nimble on the controls, especially after the sloppy torque tube joint was replaced. Gary Plewa AP/IA N4GP |
#208
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Cherokee 235 vs Trinidad vs Comanche
Gary wrote: Windshield was over $1200 fob France when one owner over aggressively tried to de-ice his plane. So you can't get one from say Cee Bailey like the rest of us? Strike one. Most of the screws are metric on the airframe, Strike two. In order to replace the tube the entire bottom cover on the tunnel between the pilot and co-pilot seats had to be removed. The tunnel is made of thin steel - not aluminum! After drilling out dozens of rivets the tube was accessible. Strike three, poor design. |
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