To Pawnee or not to Pawnee...that is the question...

On Monday, October 15, 2007 7:16:11 PM UTC-4, Travis Beach wrote:
Our club has a Piper Pawnee 235hp in excellent condition.
We just spent $35000 five years ago to completely overhaul
her...new fabric, new engine, anything that needed
to be replaced was...

Heres the rub...we are in the middle of a new two place
acquisition with the club making a decision about getting
a new two place intermediate performance. We were about
to drop the hammer when a very vocal minority raised
the issue of PAWNEE needing to be replaced citing extreme
maintenance cost (???) and inability to get parts.
He/She cited the local aero repair facility as his/her
source of information...Many of us just dont see this
as a problem. The replacement that was cited was a
Husky 180HP...I just dont see the reasoning of such
a switch...I surely would rather two a heavier two
place with a proven performer with 235 hp vs a 180...

What say you? Discuss...should we scrap the Pawnee
in favor of a Husky?

Beach

must be single place glass your towing with the scout and husky, no comparison between the 2 and a 235-260 pawnee, not safe hauling our ask21 loaded with anything but the pawnee, my old club had pawnees and a scout and the scout was seldom used, not enough HP, and we only towed the light gliders with it, you just can't replace horse power.

All this talk of horsepower ... I've never towed with anything other than a 150hp Super Cub and a 150hp Citabria and they got the job done from 1500' altitude fields off 2500' grass strips, even with two place glass. I've enjoyed being towed by Pawnees but as others have noted, the only real difference from the quiet end of the rope was the initial ground roll. More horses are nice but not really necessary at low altitude ... in fact they used to tow at one of my clubs with a Tiger Moth!

On Sunday, March 23, 2014 2:31:52 AM UTC-7, wrote:
All this talk of horsepower ... I've never towed with anything other than a 150hp Super Cub and a 150hp Citabria and they got the job done from 1500' altitude fields off 2500' grass strips, even with two place glass. I've enjoyed being towed by Pawnees but as others have noted, the only real difference from the quiet end of the rope was the initial ground roll. More horses are nice but not really necessary at low altitude ... in fact they used to tow at one of my clubs with a Tiger Moth!


This thread is from 2007, so I suspect they made a decision . . . unless they're really slow.

Up high, Minden is at 4730' and high desert, there's no comparison. I own a 180 HP Husky with PowerFlow exhaust and cooling improvements. I've towed heavy two place glass and it's doable, just barely. And not at all kind to the Husky with CHTs over 400 F and climb sub 200 fpm. Pawnee, no problem.

Haven't towed near sea level, but of course have taken my Husky there - - totally different animal! The roughly 3% change in horsepower per thousand feet makes a remarkable difference when you're used to mostly flying mountains.

bumper