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He bought a Comanche 180 over the weekend. It is located in Kalamazoo MI.

Good for him. A little like the 180-HP Cherokee Arrow. Respect gross weight and the Comanche is more efficient. Nice-size cabin, good handling, bullet-proof engine.

Hope he's found a good one.

Suggestion: put it on jacks and swing the gear during the pre-buy.

I did a complex airplane checkout for a commercial student in a Comanche about six months ago. The FBO that owns it insists on putting the airplane on jacks and having the student do the emergency gear extension for real. I thought that was great. The emergency gear extension system is not intuitive. The time in the airplane on jacks working on the gear system was absolutely great. The FBO feels that the training is cheap insurance so it doesn't charge the student for the A & P time for setting up and running the session, just for the dual with the CFI.

If I were restricted to one thing to say to new Comanche pilots it would be - don't add ANY speed over book on final. That airplane is allergic to extra speed on final as it will bite you in the flare and touchdown. It lands beautifully if you fly final on speed. Tack on any more and lots and lots of bad things can happen as you float - directional control issues, touching down on the nose wheel ...

CORRECTION,

I was misinformed or didn't quite hear what Larry told me. He bought a Cherokee 180. 1964. Paint was done in 2013. Very nice and shinny paint job.

And a good, solid plane they are.



Jim