That panel is belt and suspenders.  

It's Purdy!



 

Chewing gum?



 

Your panel gave me a boner
 


One day!!!

Yeah, but that panel is at least $40,000 on a $30,000 plane.  

 

Its a little worse than that. 50 grand in radios on an airplane bought for 60 grand. Still not perfect either. The only vacuum driven instrument is the standby attitude indicator. So this aircraft actually doesn't have much in the way of alternate sources. It's all electric. Luckily much of it (the aspen and the copilot attitude indicator) has battery backup in case of an alternator failure. But we're not real happy about it. So we're going to replace the copilots DG with a vacuum driven one. Also we always have a yoke mounted GPS that is wired in to keep the batteries charged in case of electrical failure. But you can see why the vacuum failure was such a non-event and went unnoticed for a bit. The standby attitude indicator just slowly rolled over. I just wish this engine could accept 2 alternators.
But Comanches are awesome if you've never flown one. It's Piper's response to the Mooney so it's fast but has better interior space. It flies like a Bonanza thanks to chain controls instead of the usual cables. This one has tip tanks and pretty much every speed mod you can find so it has a still air range of 1200 miles. If your bladder can handle it, it'll cover alot of ground for cheap. It's a fun and very capable aircraft. It's not the "Vegas Viper" but I bet it'd be amongst the top 10 nicest Comanches.

I didn't look up prices for the CHT gauge, autopilot, or DME.

BTW:  The King avionics look so out of place on that panel.  

Yeah, that's the JPI 12 probe cht/egt with digital fuel flow monitoring. It'll tell you within a few minutes of when you're out of gas. The autopilot is an S-Tech 50.

That is nice.  It's a shame these guys don't have an STC on a PC-24, but maybe you can ask.

ETA:  Did I just count three fuel flow gauges on that panel?  

We fly twice a day in a 36, makes me all warm and fuzzy inside reading about this. We've had two crashes and did a thread about it.

No, there's only one. It's the red digital display on the far right side of the panel. Left of the transponder is fuel pressure incorporated with oil pressure and oil temp. Beneath the transponder are 2 fuel quantity gauges.

All the pictures are bad since I deleted my imageshack.

thread


Last time it wrecked was 5 in the morning right after take off the motor blew a rod. Flipped a bitch to make it back to run way but it crashed about 200 yards short.

You have WAY too much excitement in your life.       You probably can't see it from your vantage point, but your flight department is taking unnecessary risks.       I don't say this lightly, but in today's professional aviation, there should be no such thing as "A downdraft forced the plane down 500' after takeoff"    They shouldn't be flying a piston single in a Hot/High environment, they should be flying a Turboprop.    I know the pilots may not be able to get the boss to spring for one, and you may not have the power to make it happen, but you both have the choice to not get on board.  

Your preaching to the choir. Everyone agrees we need a turbo prop not that its not a good time taxing in 100 degree weather at 4k feet and flying about 5 feet over the end of the run way when we take off. I have made the call I was driving and not got on the plane. The morning of the down draft I was off shift and couldnt believe they actually flew it that wind. Throwing a rod is just shit happens.

We used to watch planes departing KFLX, some days it seemed like 5,700 was barely enough

Not really.    The airplane is being asked to do something it was never designed to do.      Back when I flew recips, I told people it was "Safer than driving"     I wish I could go back in time and slap my 1992 self.     It isn't.  Not by a Long Shot.   And Especially, when you are using an airplane in an environment and role for which it was not designed.       A nice PT-6 would be so much more reliable and powerful, i can't even explain it to you.

Right now, all of you, Pax and crew, are sort of complacent, because you had two accidents where nobody got hurt.   Everyone has learned the wrong lesson, drawn exactly the wrong conclusion.      The Pilots should quit.  Everybody is hiring.   I can't imagine why they would ever strap in again.       People just get stuck in a rut.  Afraid take a risk.  But the risk of dying trapped in fiery wreckage is much worse than the risk of having to commute to a lower paying job.

The pilot is the owner of the planes We changed the conditions we will fly in and changed weight limits depending on ambient.  Thing is when they put the contract up I dont think anyone but the company we have now even bids on it. We almost always have 2 topgun instructors rotate in and fly the rest of the flights for the owner.

Well, that explains....everything.    Does the guy even have a 135 certificate?

I think he needs 5 more crashes before he unlocks that certification. Honestly though I dont know what paper work he has but I'm sure it has to be legit since it has to go through corporate. Sure if he didnt have one the lawsuits would be settled already

You'd be surprised.

Don't be so sure.      It's not a distinction which people are commonly aware of.    Even corporate lawyers.       Basically, a 135 charter certificate is required to "Fly for hire" unless the aircraft is owned and operated by your company.     Lots of people skirt this using various schemes such as "Wet leasing"  and the like.    The feds typically ignore it, until there is a fatal accident.  It's very similar to making homebrewed NFA stuff, and shooting it on your own property.           You can probably find a lot of stuff online by googling.    Both in general, and specific to his operation.  

You also need to fully understand his Insurance, and your companies insurance.    It isn't clear, or easy, believe me.

instruments go ding dong