Good Day All,

I have been looking at purchasing an interest in a Cherokee Six. I have done some research on this type of aircraft, but honestly I have found that there is very little good information out there on the web compared to most other single engine models.

Who better than to ask the people who hold a wealth of knowledge about all aircraft types...BCP subscribers!

What can you tell me about this aircraft? Difference in airframes, engine types, what to look for in purchasing, pros, cons, range, speed, cost of operation, maintenace issues, anedotal stories, etc. Any and all information would be apprciated.


Cheers

macdon221

In its class, one of the best load haulers ever. Which is why they are still in use in commercial operations here. Not real fast. Not real pretty. You can haul a piano or an ATV though...maybe not all ATVs will fit, but many will if you have a good cargo door.

You can put real people in all the seats in many of these aircraft, which is pretty awesome. What is your flight mission? If you are flying with lots of people or gear and going a little ways, but not too far, this would be a good plane. If you are looking for a plane to fly around the backcountry by yourself on BCP adventures, yes it will work but there are lots of more economical options.

Hard to really give any detailed advice without knowing what you want to do with it.

I got a fair number of hours in the 300 HP version. Simple, stable, comfortable, and doesn't do anything real fast. Won't haul the bulk of it's step-cousin the C207, but it hauls more than enough for a family truckster.

Gump

Macdon,

I owned a Cherokee Six-300 for about ten years and supported a local Skydiving team on demo jumps with it. I'd take off both back doors and took out all the seats. Mine did not have club seating. I've taken 5 jumpers to 10.5 in approx 25 minutes. To 8.5 took about 15-18 minutes. It was a good running Six and I had several of the "Knots-to-U" mods on it which helped a little with the climb rate. It always semed to maintain about 500 fpm climb rate with jumpers on board until you hit 7000 or 7.5. Depended on the OAT of course. Darned thing would burn a lot of gas to get it there and I've seen it at 17 to 19 gallons per hour, when I had a jump window to to meet on a demo. I've also jumped Sixes a few times on demo's and the biggest complaint I had and from whomever was spotting was that you have to really lean out and down to see under the wing on jump run. I used to pull one notch of flaps so the spotter could see between the "flap gap" and the wing root. Jump run at 85 IAS, slight decent. Was a great airplane but felt a need to replace it with a C-180. This is all from about 15 years ago but I think my memory serves me right on this.

My buddy flys one into the Idaho backcountry strips. It
Takes him a lot longer to get airborne than the Cessnas. He is limited to the strips he can use due to takeoff roll.

DEGJR

Check the spar carry through for corrosion at the fittings. Its a low point and can accumulate moisture.

The 260s have a higher gross weight. They approach at 100 and if you get below 100 it's starts to sink REAL fast. The 260 will burn 13gph at cruise and around 20gph on climb out. You can put 6 average size adults in it with full fuel and it will fly. It's a good plane but its like flying a dump truck.

Yeah, but it's a good handlin' dump truck. A buddy has one with a Bush STOL kit and a bunch of speed mods, and it performs reasonably well, all considered.

My first flying job was in a Cherokee 6 at age 20 with 500 hours, both the 32-300 and 32R-300. I flew them for several years when I was scaring the stupid out of me. They are good birds if you keep the mission in mind. Allergic to gravel if you like your prop, and they love asphalt. Like half a mile of it. They will make you appreciate Cessna products. I still fly them but we also have a C207 and C185 now, so the good outweighs the bad. In my opinion though, a shitty Cessna 206 beats the hell out of a mint condition Cherokee 6, as well as any nose-dragger yet invented for short-field and off-airport heavy hauling.

I flew a 6-260 for awhile, lots of years ago--belonged to one of my students, and we traded my using it for his instrument lessons. Very stable, hard to overload, but pretty gutless--neither very fast nor much of a climber. I recall one particular flight, loaded to the gills with my family and luggage for a Thanksgiving visit from Laramie to Durango, very close to gross on take-off. I think climb-out from Laramie was between 200-250 fpm. Had to make a potty stop at Alamosa, and because we'd burned off some fuel, the climb-out from there was somewhat better, though nothing to write home about.

It had been clear leaving Laramie, but soon after take-off from Alamosa, we were in the clouds and some snow. On arrival at Durango, there were 2 commuter aircraft ahead of us. Both went missed and diverted to Farmington. I think because we were approaching at a much slower airspeed, we had no trouble shooting the ILS--the runway was easy to see about 50-100' above DH. We were the last airplane in for several days, as we were coming in at the beginning of a major snowstorm.

I enjoyed the 6-260. It wasn't what I'd call "fun" to fly, but it was a good, reliable, solid airplane. By regularly switching tanks to maintain balance (it has 4), it was easy to trim for hands-off. It didn't have an auto-pilot, so being stable and predictable were good attributes. Power off with full flaps, it'll sink like a rock, but it's easy to fly.

Cary

Back in the late sixties I flew Skydivers, (Denver Sport Parachute Club, CU jump club) at different front range airports. We had 2 180's. If we had a big meet we would also lease a 260 hp Cherokee Six and a 182 twin Ray Jay turbo. The six took forever to get to jump altitude and no one wanted to fly it, we drew straws to see who got it. The 180's would be waiting minutes for the six to get there. The 180's also beat the turbo powered 182 to altitude. We didn't like the six.
Ron

We used the hell out of em for hauling cruise ship clients, had three different companies using them. Good haulers, stable, easy to fly, fairly easy to maintain. The oldest operator around here always said they were the best and eventually nearly all the operators ended up using them. Not as good to see out of as My Stinson of course but a good honest plane.
The only issue I recall was difficulty in Hot starts. They were used a lot into and out of gravel strips too.