Looking at Buying a Piper Cherokee 160. I know, I know, It ain't a cub. but I'm an old guy.
Question is, does anyone know or have experience with the various mods for them. I'm thinking of Horton STOL, or dorsal fin mods. Wingtips is another. I know what they do on a Cessna, but not up on the Piper improvments.

Save your money, all that stuff isn't going help make it something its not. Just buy enough gas to learn how to really fly it.

mr scout wrote:Save your money, all that stuff isn't going help make it something its not. Just buy enough gas to learn how to really fly it.

Well Said!

After putting several hundred hours on a 150HP Pa-28-140 over the last few years, I feel being comfortable with the edges of the flight envelope will do more for you than dumping dollars on mods.

If you can find one with a bunch of stc's, buy it! it usually doesn't make sense to spend the money modding them your self.

Above all, run what ya brung, and know how to make it perform.

Vitz

Why not get a 170.
They are cheap, and not as bland to fly or look at, with a lot of stc's availble.

What ever hapened to the "Gust go buy a Maule" guy.

I used to fly a Musckateer with an IO346. After I mastered a nose high, power on stall landing it would get me to lots of places. You cannot beat a high wing for slow landing speed.

If you already own the low wing as Scout Says, just learn all you can about it.

Tim

Mongo wrote:Why not get a 170.
They are cheap, and not as bland to fly or look at, with a lot of stc's availble.

Oldtech used to own my 170.

If you get too bored with it you can always add some floats http://www.theedge.ca/kevinsky18/floats.htm

One of these days....

I have a 69 cherokee 180'' And i love it,at 7 gals per hr...i never had any trouble going anywere,,it's cheep to maintain,Insur. $700 a yr.annu.$875 yr. so buy what ever you feel comforable in flying,and your pocket book can aford,,the more you fly,,the more you live !!

52Romeo wrote:I have a 69 cherokee 180'' And i love it,at 7 gals per hr...i never had any trouble going anywere,,it's cheep to maintain,Insur. $700 a yr.annu.$875 yr. so buy what ever you feel comforable in flying,and your pocket book can aford,,the more you fly,,the more you live !!

WOW pulling a 0-360 back to 7 gph seems like you could drive and get there faster. Of course I guess that is a economical way to build hours

I did a prop balance on one this past summer that had the really big vg's on it, and some gap seals etc.
They fly it out of their farm strip with 2 on board, 1000 ft grass strip, trees at the end. They are very happy with it.

I'm close to 60,,and i have no need for speed,,I just want to enjoy life when flying,,sure i can burn 8 to 9gls per hr, when i'm in a rush,,but why not enjoy flying,,when I buy the gas,,I tend to slow down,,now if somone else is buying,,that's diffent,,,I have 406hrs on my motor,all comp; 78/80,78/80,79/80,79/80 last annu.in oct.09,,I always lean out when taxing or flying.So ya I fly slow,,I enjoy life and flying,,Don't you,,Their are only 2 things I would like to do ,to my plane and that"s put on a Micro Vortex generator kit and put in that EZ Flap Handle,,

A Power Flow Systems aftermarket exhaust may be something to consider: http://www.powerflowsystems.com/products.php?cat_id=6&pid=24. They claim increased climb rates, higher RPMs, and lower fuel burn rates, and cost between $3,800 and $4,300. PFS claims fuel savings of up to 2.2 gph: at that rate, their exhaust will pay for itself in roughly 570 hours (assuming fuel costs $4/gal and the total installed cost is $5,000). Those are attractive economics.

I have no personal experience flying a plane equipped with the PFS exhaust, but have met several people who are happy with them.

I've been very happy with the VGs on my Super Cruiser, and would probably put them on any new plane I would buy. Micro Aerodynamics' http://www.microaero.com/pages/k_piper.html VGs will run you $1,450.

Interesting thoughts here. If I could get a decent 170 for 25 kilobucks, I would, but, you can't. I bought the Cherokee and while I have some pa-28-180 time a few years ago, learning how to fly it properly is definitely the first step. Vg's are also being considered.

52Romeo wrote:I'm close to 60,,and i have no need for speed,,I just want to enjoy life when flying,,sure i can burn 8 to 9gls per hr, when i'm in a rush,,but why not enjoy flying,,when I buy the gas,,I tend to slow down,,now if somone else is buying,,that's diffent,,,I have 406hrs on my motor,all comp; 78/80,78/80,79/80,79/80 last annu.in oct.09,,I always lean out when taxing or flying.So ya I fly slow,,I enjoy life and flying,,Don't you,,Their are only 2 things I would like to do ,to my plane and that"s put on a Micro Vortex generator kit and put in that EZ Flap Handle,,

No;
I only like to fly slow when landing or during a search. The rest of the time its wide open I never had a 0-360 that burned less that 9.5 most of the time they are always 10gph. If your happy at going slow enough to only burn 7gph that is wonderful.
I miss the days of 4.5 in the champ, they were some memorable hours.
My TO-360 will burn 17gph pulled back as slow as I dare go its still burning 13gph I am doing my part to stimulate the economy

VGs are always a good idea, if you can give up a little speed, in fact if you put them back further you will go faster but then they dont help slow speed at all.

Customer of mine HAD the Power Flow exhaust system on his Cherokee with the "Classic Pipe". We found a good sized crack in the cluster of that exhaust system and the manufacturers specifically state that you can not weld their system and have to send it in to them for repair. I can not remember the repair cost, but it was expensive and Power Flow would not work with the owner to get the system fixed. So, long story short, the airplane has its original exhaust system re-installed and the owner is happy as a clam. According to him, it never did what they advertised anyway.

Brian.

mr scout wrote:

52Romeo wrote:I'm close to 60,,and i have no need for speed,,I just want to enjoy life when flying,,sure i can burn 8 to 9gls per hr, when i'm in a rush,,but why not enjoy flying,,when I buy the gas,,I tend to slow down,,now if somone else is buying,,that's diffent,,,I have 406hrs on my motor,all comp; 78/80,78/80,79/80,79/80 last annu.in oct.09,,I always lean out when taxing or flying.So ya I fly slow,,I enjoy life and flying,,Don't you,,Their are only 2 things I would like to do ,to my plane and that"s put on a Micro Vortex generator kit and put in that EZ Flap Handle,,

No;
I only like to fly slow when landing or during a search. The rest of the time its wide open I never had a 0-360 that burned less that 9.5 most of the time they are always 10gph. If your happy at going slow enough to only burn 7gph that is wonderful.
I miss the days of 4.5 in the champ, they were some memorable hours.
My TO-360 will burn 17gph pulled back as slow as I dare go its still burning 13gph I am doing my part to stimulate the economy

VGs are always a good idea, if you can give up a little speed, in fact if you put them back further you will go faster but then they dont help slow speed at all.

I fly my IO360 full throttle when I want to get somewhere. When I fly local I generally fly at 20maf and burn 6.7gal hr. Than again the full throttle is 170kts and the 20maf is 135kts. Ooops, that's in my RV.

That tailwheel conversion makes a way nicer looking plane.
I wonder how much speed you would gain???

Yah, I was looking at that tailwheeler, but , knowing how they are built, it looks a little sketchy to me to have the gear up there. There's nothing there unless they did some serious mods. The trike is ok for my kind of flying. Piper's gear is very good.

There is a taildragger Grumman for sale on Barnstormers. Forget if it is a Tiger or Cougar.