Piper Navajo Specialists

[185pilote]

Springwater Aircraft Sales / Piper Navajo Specialists
Springwater Airpark, Barrie, Ontario, (CNA3)
Phone: (705) 722-6209, (705) 722-3522
http://www.aircraftsales.ca

Maintenance / Overhaul / Refurbishment / Pre-Purchase Inspection / Parts
Sales / Brokerage / Purchase

At Springwater, we specialize in buying, selling, brokering, maintening and refurbishing Piper Navajo Aircraft.

Call us now! We can help!

[Ballsssssss]

YUCK

[niss]

Why Yuck?

[Ballsssssss]

Navajos suck.... I wouldn't want to be specialized in them. Tough machine for sure, hard to kill, but always something breaking and Piper has a funny idea about how to put airplanes together..... They are like the Ford or Arctic Cat of airplanes.....They may work but not very well engineered.

[iflyforpie]

I'd take a 'Ho over any 400 Series Cessna. Before any AeroCommander. What does that leave in the cabin class piston range? Beechcraft? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$


Most Navajos are ridden hard and put away wet, but even the ones I worked on that were bashed up by Sonic Blue and later found a second life drug running weren't all that bad.

[Ballsssssss]

I would take a 400 series Cessna without the SID. The continental engines are easier to work on as far as component changes go, but the lycomings on the 'Ho are wayyyy more reliable. What Beech is there in the same class as a 'Ho or a 400 series Cessna? Queen Air?

[niss]

Well I see enough of them coming through our airport that they cant be all bad.

[iflyforpie]

Yeah, Queen Airs desperately advertised as 'Navajo Killers' but either with the GTIO-540 (yuck) or the TIO-720 (great until you have to buy parts) and Beechcraft's wonderfully inflated parts prices. Or a Baron 58 (you guys don't have bags right?) or Duke (the sloped nose wallet sucker, still no room for bags).

I've always been partial to the -540s (stuck behind an IO-520 now but it seems to be doing okay) except that stupid dual mag setup on some and the fact they are buried behind the engine. I also liked that the 'Hos have steel motor mounts, not the aluminum abomination that the Cessnas have (with a turbo cooking right in there) the simple flap system (no cables!) and everything is pretty easy to access.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Before any AeroCommander.

You obviously have never flown a Turbo Commander then.

That is a true pilots airplane.

[iflyforpie]

Any plane Ted R. Smith designed was a pilot's airplane (A-26, Aerostar, Aerocommander, etc). But he didn't have too much consideration for the poor bastard who actually had to work on it.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Every time I see a Turbo Commander I want to fly it again it was hands down the best little twin I ever flew, conversely I don't have any desire to fly a Navajo again when I see one.

The 400 series Cessnas were better flying machines than the Navajo, especially IFR.

Even the piston powered Grand Commander was a pilots airplane.

[jetdoc]

If I ever had to work on a light twin again it would have to be a Navajo.

...if I never ever worked on a twin Cessna again I would be ok with the that and die a happy man!!

Did you get that I hate twin Cessna's?

[chowda]

I detest both the cessna and the Ho, with the Ho in the lead, but I also have more time on it.

Come to think of it, there isn't really anything piston powered(airplane) that I'd look forward to wrenching on steady.

[niko]

Springwater Aircraft Sales / Piper Navajo Specialists
Springwater Airpark, Barrie, Ontario, (CNA3)
Phone: (705) 722-6209, (705) 722-3522
http://www.aircraftsales.ca

Maintenance / Overhaul / Refurbishment / Pre-Purchase Inspection / Parts
Sales / Brokerage / Purchase

At Springwater, we specialize in buying, selling, brokering, maintening and refurbishing Piper Navajo Aircraft.

Call us now! We can help!

Hey Joe, is it you?

[185pilote]

Yes, it's Joe & Chantal! Who is this?

[iflyforpie]

Every time I see a Turbo Commander I want to fly it again it was hands down the best little twin I ever flew, conversely I don't have any desire to fly a Navajo again when I see one.

The 400 series Cessnas were better flying machines than the Navajo, especially IFR.

Even the piston powered Grand Commander was a pilots airplane.

They are nice to fly no doubt (after all, Bob Hoover chose a Shrike Commander for his aerobatic routine). But my experience is from the dirty end of these planes. If I didn't have to get my hands dirty it would be a different story (hee hee, who cares about the poor AME who has to fix this).

Most AMEs hate Skymasters and most pilots simply think of them as singles with another problem in the back. Funny thing is, in my experience it's the twin I have the most fun flying and fixing.

[Hedley]

My only comment on the 300/400 Cessnas ... get the
vortex generators. The difference, before and after, is
amazing. With the VGs, they land like a Piper Cub.
Without the VGs, if you reduce the power too early,
it's gonna land hard.

[SeptRepair]

Most AMEs hate Skymasters and most pilots simply think of them as singles with another problem in the back. Funny thing is, in my experience it's the twin I have the most fun flying and fixing.

Cant speak on the part of flying them, but fixing them i never found them to be that bad. I had a boss who thought they were the best thing around and of course took all and any skymaggots in for maintenance. I must admit the pressurised version with a janitrol stuff up front was an ignorant beast to maintain, but that is the exception.

[iflyforpie]

SKYMAGGOT!? I haven't heard that one yet. You made my day