Great video! Would love to see more about technical info, specs, operating cost, maintenance, flying techniques, etc. My dad had a '59 250 with tip tanks in the '80s and '90s, had to sell it, then more recently got into a '67 260B. I'm hoping to spend more time in the air with him, and maybe he can fly our little music group to gigs in towns that are too far to drive to as long as we can borrow some drums and amps.
last landing was a greaser dude! thanks to utube algorithms iv discovered you. Would love to own a Comanche in real life but i am limited to MSFS and A2A comanche which is the next best thing. looking forward to following your journey. Safe landings!!!!
Awesome, welcome to the channel! Glad you are enjoying the videos. I love using MSFS and now specifically the A2A Comanche to enhance training and proficiency. I can tell you that all of the procedures on the A2A Comanche apply in real life. I fly the sim the same way I fly the plane in real life.
Hi Carlos, Great video. Your Comanche looks great too! It If you can do a video on propeller handling with the engine monitor that would be great, thanks and keep up the good work
I can certainly make a video on how I manage the propeller and engine. That being said, I do not currently have an engine monitor. Looking to add one sometime in the future.
Thanks for the awesome videos. My wife dropped a hint that she may or may not be signing me up for lessons for Christmas this year. Its fun to live vicariously through your videos while I wait for that! Its been a lifelong dream, but I wasnt comfortable going for it until she was 100% on board, and before then it wasnt feasible financially. You have any preference between a C172/PA28 for a student?
This is wonderful to hear! Congrats on getting your aviation journey started! Aside from documenting my family trips, this is why I make videos, for people like you! My best recommendation would be to go check out your local flight school or flight schools (go see them all). See what aircraft they have available. Everyone will have different wants and needs. Some will want an advanced aircraft with the latest avionics, while others will just want the most affordable option (maybe a C152). Its important for the flight school to have multiple of the aircraft you are planning to rent. Things will go wrong, planes will be down for maintenance and you will want to make sure there is another one you can rent to continue your training with little interruption. I like to see at least 2-3 of the same make and model in a flight school just for this reason. My mission was to accomplish my training in the most cost efficient way I could. I rented a C152 and did all my training in it. I then transitioned to the C172 before moving to the P28 and now P24. I personally like the Piper platform better. Landings seem to be more straightforward (Cessna's float forever) but I can't say Cessna's are bad because they really aren't. I'd recommend both. If your flight school has both, go fly them and see which one you like better. If they have at least 2 planes of each, choose which platform you want to go with based on feel, cost and common availability. As a bonus, I have also seen that Piper's tend to have more availability than Cessna's if the flight school have both available to rent. Best of luck!
@@MyFamilyFlightPlan hey thanks for the awesome response! Two flight schools in my area, each has at least half a dozen of a mix of pipers and cessna's (and a $200/hour cirrus that I definitely won't be renting often, lol). I'll keep that in mind! I have had other recs to start on the 152, just because it's so simple and you really focus on flight mechanics as opposed to dealing with a bunch of fancy instruments.its also considerably cheaper than the others. I was planning on going straight to one, but will check out both personally before making the call! Thanks again! Aviators on TH-cam are so amazingly helpful and eager to share their passion. Best of luck to you and yours!
Great. Me too i fly it only in the msfs. But how do i land correctly ? I think with 90mph in the final. And when is the right point to go into idle ? Some videos show that the pilot make that before the threshold ? Greets from Germany Carsten
Thanks for watching! I have a good flying friend from Germany that will be featured more in the channel in the future. People say the Comanche can be a tricky bird to land but speed control will make it a non event. Speed over the fence should be 80mph. I tend to keep power until over the airport fence or when I am assured the runway is made (if coming in a little high). At that point you can start reducing power to idle and let the plane slow down closer to the runway. You want to fly it all the way to the ground keeping your nose up when the runway starts getting wider in your field of view. 3 notches of flaps when you have passengers in the back and 2 when lightly loaded also help! Hope that helps with your sim flying!
The taxi clearance at the beginning was so fast I have listened to it four times and can’t get it. Is that a normal ATC speed? I have a hard time with ATC.
Yes some of our controllers tend to speak very quickly. Thankfully this is the same taxi clearance i get every time so it is expected. If ever in doubt, I always say “say again” and if the controller is talking too fast I add the word “slowly” They will get the hint.
I used to have a 59 180. Flew the heck out of that thing when I was young. Now I'm just now starting to work on my instrument after about 15 years "time off". How was the Comanche for IFR training? I'll probably end up in another Comanche once I get my life lined out.
Training for IFR on the Comanche was actually very nice. You can fly a comanche powered down like a Cherokee, especially for training. Won’t lie, having an autopilot is also a very nice plus. Best of luck in your training!
I am not. I was for the first year of ownership but found it too political without much value. I am part of the fb Piper Comanche group which has been invaluable
I’m sorry realized I never finished my post. Where in NorCal are you? That would be awesome to meet up. 25P is currently in annual, hoping to get her back soon
Yes I love the Comanche. I currently have a Mooney wanted something within more load capacity. What are the ADs one can expect? One your VSI what do you normally see on climb out?
Hi Ken, thank you for your comment. I was looking at Mooneys before but cabin space was a big factor. The comanche has a few ADs but most can be terminated. The reoccurring ones that get a little expensive is the horn AD and gear AD. Fully loaded, I usually see 1000ft per min climb out at VY
Why do you only do simulated gear up in the pattern? I own a Cherokee 140 and I just got my instrument rating. So my mission has changed from training to travel. Which means I want to go faster. Comanche is appealing to me - mostly because I really really love my trim wheel on the ceiling. But my concern is that it's a much more complex machine. And I don't just mean prop and gear. I mean that it's (famously) got 50% more parts than the PA28 airplanes. So my question is what is maintenance like? I know that any retractable gear airplane is going to have more expensive maintenance than my Cherokee. Do you have a sense of Comanche maintenance expenses compared to say a Piper Arrow or a Mooney. Did you have a hard time finding a mechanic that knows Comanche?
I will cover this in a future video as well. 1. the gear in the Comanche can be a very expensive component to fix. Putting the gear up and down in the pattern is unnecessary wear on the gear and also puts a lot of heat on the gear motor. 2. There have been many gear up landings in complex aircraft during pattern work due to a technical failure or forgetting to put the gear down. I think when practicing take off and landings, you should make it as realistic as possible. While putting the gear up and down is realistic, I chose to simulate it for the reasons above. As for the Comanche being more complex than the PA28, I don't think that translates to 50% more expensive. Sure it is an older airframe, but there is a great support community out there. I recommend you join the "Piper Comanche" Facebook group, it is a wonderful resource. Having owned the PA28-180 before the Comanche, the switch in flying and expenses was fairly relative. Yes, costs will increase about 30%, but that is the cost of speed and useful load.
Yes that’s correct I am using the osmo DJI action cameras first gen. I have an adapter for the DJI osmo that is able to plug a standard aux cable. From there I use the nflightcam cable to record.
I'd like to know the speeds you fly in the pattern speed over the numbers and your manifold settings in the pattern. etc. Any sort of maintenance issues you have.
I’ll talk more about this in my next videos. For speeds, 100mph on downwind, 90 on base and slow to 80 on final. Maintenance unfortunately hit me hard this year.
Very interesting, would you be willing to explaine the work and costs you incurred im sure we would find it all very interesting...@@MyFamilyFlightPlan
I always treat all Take offs as short field take offs. I use 2 notches on almost all take offs. The thought process is that i want to gain as much altitude as quickly as possible in the most critical point in flight.
Great video! Would love to see more about technical info, specs, operating cost, maintenance, flying techniques, etc. My dad had a '59 250 with tip tanks in the '80s and '90s, had to sell it, then more recently got into a '67 260B. I'm hoping to spend more time in the air with him, and maybe he can fly our little music group to gigs in towns that are too far to drive to as long as we can borrow some drums and amps.
Thank you! Will definitely be making more videos on this topic in the future.
That’s the plane I want!!
last landing was a greaser dude! thanks to utube algorithms iv discovered you. Would love to own a Comanche in real life but i am limited to MSFS and A2A comanche which is the next best thing. looking forward to following your journey. Safe landings!!!!
Awesome, welcome to the channel! Glad you are enjoying the videos. I love using MSFS and now specifically the A2A Comanche to enhance training and proficiency. I can tell you that all of the procedures on the A2A Comanche apply in real life. I fly the sim the same way I fly the plane in real life.
I’m buying my first plane and it is a Comanche 250 1959 year just like yours !! I can’t wait
Where r u located ?
Congrats! That’s awesome! Make sure to join the “Piper Comanche” fb group. It’s a wealth of information
@@vinnylima7571 I’m in San Jose, CA
Nice video Carlos. And nice to see you again. 85W should be up and running soon. Engine just arrived. Looking forward to your other videos.
That’s awesome! Actually just went flying with Nic and he told me the same thing. Looking forward to 85w getting a new engine!
Hi Carlos, Great video. Your Comanche looks great too! It If you can do a video on propeller handling with the engine monitor that would be great, thanks and keep up the good work
I can certainly make a video on how I manage the propeller and engine. That being said, I do not currently have an engine monitor. Looking to add one sometime in the future.
Thanks for the awesome videos. My wife dropped a hint that she may or may not be signing me up for lessons for Christmas this year. Its fun to live vicariously through your videos while I wait for that! Its been a lifelong dream, but I wasnt comfortable going for it until she was 100% on board, and before then it wasnt feasible financially.
You have any preference between a C172/PA28 for a student?
This is wonderful to hear! Congrats on getting your aviation journey started! Aside from documenting my family trips, this is why I make videos, for people like you!
My best recommendation would be to go check out your local flight school or flight schools (go see them all). See what aircraft they have available. Everyone will have different wants and needs. Some will want an advanced aircraft with the latest avionics, while others will just want the most affordable option (maybe a C152). Its important for the flight school to have multiple of the aircraft you are planning to rent. Things will go wrong, planes will be down for maintenance and you will want to make sure there is another one you can rent to continue your training with little interruption. I like to see at least 2-3 of the same make and model in a flight school just for this reason.
My mission was to accomplish my training in the most cost efficient way I could. I rented a C152 and did all my training in it. I then transitioned to the C172 before moving to the P28 and now P24. I personally like the Piper platform better. Landings seem to be more straightforward (Cessna's float forever) but I can't say Cessna's are bad because they really aren't. I'd recommend both. If your flight school has both, go fly them and see which one you like better. If they have at least 2 planes of each, choose which platform you want to go with based on feel, cost and common availability. As a bonus, I have also seen that Piper's tend to have more availability than Cessna's if the flight school have both available to rent.
Best of luck!
@@MyFamilyFlightPlan hey thanks for the awesome response! Two flight schools in my area, each has at least half a dozen of a mix of pipers and cessna's (and a $200/hour cirrus that I definitely won't be renting often, lol). I'll keep that in mind! I have had other recs to start on the 152, just because it's so simple and you really focus on flight mechanics as opposed to dealing with a bunch of fancy instruments.its also considerably cheaper than the others.
I was planning on going straight to one, but will check out both personally before making the call! Thanks again! Aviators on TH-cam are so amazingly helpful and eager to share their passion. Best of luck to you and yours!
@@jiffey_faux glad I could help!
Great. Me too i fly it only in the msfs. But how do i land correctly ? I think with 90mph in the final. And when is the right point to go into idle ? Some videos show that the pilot make that before the threshold ? Greets from Germany Carsten
Thanks for watching! I have a good flying friend from Germany that will be featured more in the channel in the future.
People say the Comanche can be a tricky bird to land but speed control will make it a non event. Speed over the fence should be 80mph. I tend to keep power until over the airport fence or when I am assured the runway is made (if coming in a little high). At that point you can start reducing power to idle and let the plane slow down closer to the runway. You want to fly it all the way to the ground keeping your nose up when the runway starts getting wider in your field of view. 3 notches of flaps when you have passengers in the back and 2 when lightly loaded also help!
Hope that helps with your sim flying!
The taxi clearance at the beginning was so fast I have listened to it four times and can’t get it. Is that a normal ATC speed? I have a hard time with ATC.
Yes some of our controllers tend to speak very quickly. Thankfully this is the same taxi clearance i get every time so it is expected. If ever in doubt, I always say “say again” and if the controller is talking too fast I add the word “slowly” They will get the hint.
I used to have a 59 180. Flew the heck out of that thing when I was young. Now I'm just now starting to work on my instrument after about 15 years "time off". How was the Comanche for IFR training? I'll probably end up in another Comanche once I get my life lined out.
Training for IFR on the Comanche was actually very nice. You can fly a comanche powered down like a Cherokee, especially for training. Won’t lie, having an autopilot is also a very nice plus. Best of luck in your training!
Awesome videos! I have a 260, and am wondering which iPad mount you use on the yoke?
I have the new iPad Pro. I use the x-grip mounts from Ram. Hope that helps! rammount.com/collections/ram-x-grip-tablet-mounts
Nice! Are you part of the international Comanche society? I’m also NorCal. Maybe a region meeting someday?
I am not. I was for the first year of ownership but found it too political without much value. I am part of the fb Piper Comanche group which has been invaluable
I’m sorry realized I never finished my post. Where in NorCal are you? That would be awesome to meet up. 25P is currently in annual, hoping to get her back soon
Yes I love the Comanche. I currently have a Mooney wanted something within more load capacity. What are the ADs one can expect? One your VSI what do you normally see on climb out?
Hi Ken, thank you for your comment. I was looking at Mooneys before but cabin space was a big factor. The comanche has a few ADs but most can be terminated. The reoccurring ones that get a little expensive is the horn AD and gear AD.
Fully loaded, I usually see 1000ft per min climb out at VY
Why do you only do simulated gear up in the pattern?
I own a Cherokee 140 and I just got my instrument rating. So my mission has changed from training to travel. Which means I want to go faster. Comanche is appealing to me - mostly because I really really love my trim wheel on the ceiling. But my concern is that it's a much more complex machine. And I don't just mean prop and gear. I mean that it's (famously) got 50% more parts than the PA28 airplanes.
So my question is what is maintenance like? I know that any retractable gear airplane is going to have more expensive maintenance than my Cherokee. Do you have a sense of Comanche maintenance expenses compared to say a Piper Arrow or a Mooney. Did you have a hard time finding a mechanic that knows Comanche?
I will cover this in a future video as well. 1. the gear in the Comanche can be a very expensive component to fix. Putting the gear up and down in the pattern is unnecessary wear on the gear and also puts a lot of heat on the gear motor. 2. There have been many gear up landings in complex aircraft during pattern work due to a technical failure or forgetting to put the gear down. I think when practicing take off and landings, you should make it as realistic as possible. While putting the gear up and down is realistic, I chose to simulate it for the reasons above.
As for the Comanche being more complex than the PA28, I don't think that translates to 50% more expensive. Sure it is an older airframe, but there is a great support community out there. I recommend you join the "Piper Comanche" Facebook group, it is a wonderful resource. Having owned the PA28-180 before the Comanche, the switch in flying and expenses was fairly relative. Yes, costs will increase about 30%, but that is the cost of speed and useful load.
How are you recording your audio? It looks like you are using Osmo DJI cameras.
Yes that’s correct I am using the osmo DJI action cameras first gen. I have an adapter for the DJI osmo that is able to plug a standard aux cable. From there I use the nflightcam cable to record.
I'd like to know the speeds you fly in the pattern speed over the numbers and your manifold settings in the pattern. etc. Any sort of maintenance issues you have.
I’ll talk more about this in my next videos. For speeds, 100mph on downwind, 90 on base and slow to 80 on final.
Maintenance unfortunately hit me hard this year.
Very interesting, would you be willing to explaine the work and costs you incurred im sure we would find it all very interesting...@@MyFamilyFlightPlan
@@lee4318 sure, my annual is coming due in the next week. Will make a video summarizing the cost of ownership in the next month or so.
How many notches of flaps do you recommend for takeoff?
I always treat all Take offs as short field take offs. I use 2 notches on almost all take offs. The thought process is that i want to gain as much altitude as quickly as possible in the most critical point in flight.
@@MyFamilyFlightPlan I like that technique
@@shawnscanlon7456 definitely helps to lower your risk factor in my opinion
I wonder why ATC tries to talk so fast when they don't need to
Agreed, but very common in congested areas such as the Bay Area. Thankfully learning to fly in this area forced me to be comfortable on the radios