Piper Cherokee 180 Review - The Perfect Time Builder/Trainer!

hey guys I'm Samuel The Aviator and today I'm going to be doing a review on my 1968 Cherokee 180 so join me as we take a look at this beautiful claim [Music] alright guys so first I want to apologize it's a little windy today so you might get a little wind noise I'm using a wind sock so hopefully that helps I want to start off with actually how we got this plane now I was looking for a plane that could double as kind of a flight training time builder type plane and also as a $100 hamburger or just sightseeing or taking my friends up I really wanted a four-seater plane that I could put four people in and put at least half tanks of fuel in or so so I was looking around and I didn't my flight training in a 172 and that one had like a seven hundred and twenty pound useful load I believe so really it's at best a three-person plane and even then you probably couldn't fill the tanks so we had kind of looked and I'd kind of looked at a Beechcraft sundowner we had found and they were a little bigger which was good they had a useful load right around 900 on the plus side of 900 so you have four people and maybe third tanks maybe half depending on how hefty the people are and so we looked at one and we didn't really want that one that we looked at but it was kind of it was kind of an optional a little they're pretty expensive and we had found that the maintenance is actually fairly expensive on those as well so that wasn't really something that we wanted to do but it was definitely an option that we were considering and I looked at Cessnas planes and there really wasn't anything other than a 182 and we had looked at a 182 and that was kind of an option as well but I don't really like the way says does the high wings fly they're little and especially the 172 but they're kind of harder to land and stuff and by chance I had seen this one on Facebook marketplace it was in the price range that we wanted and it was literally half an hour from our house so I mean I messaged the guy and we went up there and looked at it and it kind of checked all the box it's the useful load to ride around a thousand pounds it's got lycoming o-360 180 horsepower engine so it's got good power it's not the prettiest around Cherokees are really known for being beautiful but I mean it cruises well it handles good it burns right around I'd say 10 gallons an hour for like the first hour or for like flight training or or that type of stuff if you're going long ways you can probably get that down to nine I know garment pilot told us a like nine and a half per hour for like just our normal cruise and we flew out about an hour long trip or hour and a half we actually cruised at about 10,500 I believe we actually burned like nine nine or 10 gallons so the cruise I'm sure you could lean that out especially at higher altitudes probably get it down to seven or eight we don't have an engine monitor so we can't exactly see per se how much 2 gallons per hour were burning other than just dipping the tanks after we fly as well as before in figuring that way but I always figure especially for just shorter flights around here about ten gallons an hour and that seems to work great so yeah it cruises good it handles real well the controls are solid the yokes nice and tight some of the other planes I looked at there was a lot of play in the yoke I looked at a Cherokee 235 and those have an amazing useful load and better speed but we really didn't need that and and they're more expensive to run but no play in the yokes it handles real well landings are very easy with this takeoffs pretty easy one difference going from the Cessna 172 to the Cherokee 180 is that the nose wheel is actually solidly connected to the rudder pedals in the Cherokee and in the 172 it's like a bungee so it's a little easier on your legs to taxi in the 172 and Plus on takeoffs and landings if you put some rudder in when you land with this plane if I have brought her in for wind or crosswind or anything like that the minute I land that it wants to you know go in the direction I had to rudder in and in the 172 the nose wheel would actually straighten out a little bit as you landed and it didn't want to dart in one direction too quickly which I really like but I mean other than that this is a solid now I don't want to go to the low wing versus high wing debate I personally feel that the lowing is fine for me it's kind of a toss-up no you can't really camp under this and it only has the copilot's store so doing the pre flights a little more involved although I mean I got used to pretty quickly and I can do pre-flight fairly quickly probably as quick as the 172 but yeah I mean you're bending underneath the wing to some of the tanks and check the tires and some other stuff like that but really it's not not a big deal unless maybe you're older have some health conditions that you don't want to be bending over or hopping above the wing to climb in although no one really has a problem with it I don't mind it at all all right so just a little performance data on this plane this has a fixed pitch propeller I believe it's a sin stick or something like that and as I already mentioned it's got a lycoming o-360 engine it's got a max oil capacity of 8 quarts normally I keep it right around 5 or 6 and the book says you can go as low as 2 quarts I'm not sure why I know I probably would never put fly with 2 quarts in it but I like to keep it right around 6 or you know fairly fill it up it does have kind of the Hershey bar we just a short of stubby or lean this does not have the tapered wing yet it has one fuel tank in each wing there 25 gallons each so 50 gallons max fuel capacity and then it's got a stabilator on the back as well as a rudder and this model has three windows I believe that began in 1968 I think the earlier Cherokees just had two side windows and then as far as it does have a bar up along the windshield which I don't really like that's the only down side I believe you can't get a single piece wingtip windshield but I mean I don't really think it's worth the cost and yeah that's the only kind of downside that's about it for kind of the exterior differences and as far as cruising cruise speed in this is about 110 knots plus at lower altitudes it's around maybe a hundred and fifteen hundred and twenty if you go up to like 10,000 feet so yeah it's not a speed demon but it's decent speed and good for just flying around finding that perfect hamburger or really just building time it's cheap to operate and I mean you really couldn't complain about that I mean if you really want a fast plane or a cross-country plane this is probably not gonna be it although it you know it's fine for some shorter cross countries or you know going a few hours but yeah it's not gonna do 160 knots 170 knots I mean get up an ends or something like that if you're really looking for a fast cross country plane although this is an amazing trainer and time builder as far as maintenance on this plane we haven't really had much so far I mean we just bought it a few months ago and so I can't really speak to that although Cherokees are supposed to be fairly reliable this had a pretty decent annual done before we bought it so a lot of the problems were fixed or corrected any anything that really needed fix the attitude indicator we had to replace and I believe we bought a remanufactured one and then sent our old one back and that was like a few hundred bucks I want to say and this also has a crankshaft ad coming up so that might be quite expensive I can't tell you how much that will be yet I mean but other than that it's a solid plane there's really no corrosion I can't speak to the annual cost because we haven't had one yet but I mean you can look that up it kind of averages or maybe around a thousand bucks but I mean that can vary widely depending on how well you maintain them how well you keep them up and other variables like that so on the maintenance front I mean really all you're gonna probably be spending is maybe tires and brakes and oil obviously fuel and things like that and you probably want to add in for your hourly prop overhaul and engine overhaul but really it's not an expensive plane to operate and it's fairly reliable Cherokees are pretty reliable but yeah I mean there's gonna be things that are coming up and that you'll need to fix but that's about it for the exterior why don't we do a quick walk around and then we'll hop inside I'll talk a little bit about that how instruments are laid out what I like what I don't like and what kind of room we've got in the interior so stick around for that and right now let's do a little walk-around all right guys I'll start over here at the left wing right here is going to be your fuel it's a 25 gallon tank like I mentioned in this wing and this is your air intake right here for our cabin air flow and then you've got your strut your brakes tire down there you've got your one fuel something right there then you've got a fuel vent and a tie down as well as your pitot-static port right there and then this is the stall warning right here this has the aftermarket wing tips for it there st seed and these really help first all although Cherokee 180s stall absolutely amazing really no issues there but I mean this you could basically fly it in a stall it just I mean it won't stall now your aileron here it's actually pretty big aileron and then you've got your flap right here pretty standard as far as planes go and then your stabilator is gonna be here and then it's got a trim tab running the whole length of the back and then obviously it's a stabilator so the whole tail assembly moves got your rudder here and we have a a DSP out tail beacon right there from UV avionics and rudder is stair got your tail diet tie-down right underneath and then walking back this has a baggage door right here the only thing I don't like about the baggage is its open by a key not by a latch so you have to use your key every time to open and close it got your flap here again aileron here same wingtip at the other side obviously your nav light then it's got your fuel cap here 25 gallon tank on this side as well then you've got your air intake for the cabin air on this side you're saying wheel strut brake assembly then you've got your fuel some feel then tie down there and then end it right here you've got your oil cap right there and we actually installed an engine pre heater which is what this cord is for so that'll keep it nice and warm in the winter it starts very especially with the pre heater and the one thing I like about the Cherokee 180 and probably all the Cherokees is a cow actually comes off fairly easy there's two clips on this side two clips on the other cow pops right off so you can look at your engine work on it whatever super easy and 172s don't really do that so and then propellers here obviously it was recently painted it's in good shape landing lights here and this is something that we'd like to do is upgrade to maybe an LED landing light or something like that that's the only downside so far but yeah that's about it for the exterior and next we're gonna hop inside and I'll talk about that real quick so stick around for that alright guys so this is the interior of the plane and unfortunately my audio actually did not work that I originally recorded so I'll just be narrating this so starting off the interior was actually just recently redone it's actually real nice and then down the left here you can see we've got the fuel selector and you can do the right or the left tank unfortunately it's not both and then beside that you can see you've got your air vent for the pilot and unfortunately they don't have any vents up near the head like the Cessna does so that blows up from below up by your leg I personally I mean I don't really mind it but it's not the best and then you also have your rudder pedals here with pilot brakes this model does not have copilot brakes although you can add it but it does have the pilots brake and then it has a handbrake right there beside that and that your flight instructor can grab if you're training so yeah that's an option carpets in pretty decent shape you can see the side liner there is tan it's in good shape as well really it's a fairly well laid out interior as you can see the tech ometer down there is gonna be a little harder to see from the pilot side that's just because the bezel around it kind of hides it from view but other than that is a standard six pack you've got your suction there on the left and then you've got your KX 155 navcom an old ADF we don't use and then it's got a g8 x 55 GPS and then that used to be IFR certified although we can't really update it so it's basically VFR use only advisory and then it's got an ELT that you can activate from up in the cockpit and then an arco 8050 a transponder that is an altitude encoding transponder 4096 code transponder just basic older one hopefully will replace that in the future although it still does work and we have a DSP so we can fly in Delta charlie and bravo airspace is if we want to although not class alpha because we're not IFR certified in this plane and then you've got your heat in defrost below that as well as your avionics master you've got your intercom down there as well as your key and I don't know if you can see over there you've got your exhaust gas temperature gauge as well and then your primers there it does have checklists beside the yoke which is nice just as a reminder if you want to click quickly glance at that although we do use a paper checklist which is a little more in-depth but yeah as a man you got your fuel there your separate gauges for each tank as well as your pressure and then you've got your throttle quadrant there it is a quadrant style instead of the push and pull like Assassin's or the older Piper's I really like that car Pete's over here and then our meters beside that and then you've got your master on and off your nav lights fuel pump blinding light beacon and panel light switches they're just pretty basic stuff that every plane is gonna have like I mentioned you've got your fuse panel over here as well as your input for your co-pilots headset and the avionics master it's gonna be over there as well and then it has push-to-talk mounted to the yoke for the co-pilot as well as the pilot and we also have a yoke mount for an iPad and then over on the left side gauges you've got your oil temperature and your voltage as well as your oil pressure and your alternator amps that it's producing pretty well laid out you can your fuel and engine instruments split on either side of the yoke so that's nice and then it's got a compass and it is the added artificial horizon style compass which I really like and then as I mentioned it's got a bar in the center of the windshield which I do not like as well I kind of wish that wasn't there but oh well then we also have a Garmin gdl 52 a DSP in and Sirius XM in so we get weather traffic and also Sirius XM Radio via bluetooth which I don't use a serious XM radio but we have an outside air temperature gauge up here as well as a couple Sun Visor it's those are a little older they are transparent though and might upgrade those in the future but not a big deal you can see we got the three windows along the side a little open a bull pane there in the pilots window to get some air and then it's got also leather nice leather seats and side liner as well as nice leather headliner and like I mentioned the interiors been done so that's all real nice like I mentioned it does have the newer style yokes which I like so it's not the old butterfly yokes overall I mean it's kind of seems like a more modern of a plain interior down below there I don't know if I mentioned you got your rudder trim down there as well as your flap handle and then you've got your elevator trim between the seats and it used to have electronic trim on the pilot to yoke you could use and also used to have autopilot that was taken out so now your trim is manual between the seats and it's a little harder to reach in there especially if you got two guys sitting up front because it's a little narrower up front so you have to reach between the seats and I know Cessnas trim is kind of up below the throttles so and that is one difference it's kind of neither here nor there especially if the electric trim still work I mean there'd be no issues so overall that's not a big deal but yeah like I mentioned it's uh it's a nice interior well laid out thoughtfully laid out interior the room as far as the room in the front the roof is rounded so you don't have quite as much room up front as you would in something more squared off although it's not bad you still have good Headroom shoulder room your shoulders will just be touching if you've got two guys up there especially more broad shouldered guys so your shoulders will just be touching but overall not bad you have good legroom good hip room like I said so yeah next up we're gonna be hopping in the backseat I'll show you around the backseat what kind of room we have there so hopefully you'll join me as we hop in the backseat hope to see you there alright guys I'm in the backseat of the Cherokee 180 and as you can see it's not too bad in here I've still got a little bit of headroom left although with my hair is kind of touching the roof it's the same tapered roof as in the front but I mean it's still fairly roomy in here and shoulder rooms good if you've got two people back here it might be a little bit tighter for you but overall it's not too bad yeah if you if you've got to pee big people back here for a few hours they might get a little cramped although it's not nearly as bad as I was thinking cuz I kind of heard Cherokees were a little tighter and they are a little bit but honestly it's not too bad for an hour-long flight or a couple hours and I mean you can get four people in here and fuel so yeah you're good to go if you want to take four people alright the this is the room you've got between the seats and the front seats that's what the pilot seat almost all the way back I could put it up a little bit smaller guy could get in there this is what the copilot seat a little more forward than they would normally have I mean they would want to put it back I'm sure but I still got quite a bit of room so they've got room to put it back I've never had problems getting four decent-sized average-sized people in here and everyone's being you know fairly comfortable so overall yeah I mean it's a good back seat for what it is I mean it's not insanely roomy but it's not bad at all don't let don't let rear seat room scare you away from getting a Cherokee 180 maybe the 140 or the 160 is tighter I mean it probably is but overall this isn't bad at all back here so all right so overall the back seats not bad at all so how about you say we go flying and I'll show you how easy this thing really flies barbar [Music] alright guys I think it's II give it a little primer it'll start right up I like tidal about a thousand that's what the book calls for so yeah we had a lot of thousand that'll keep from getting like some carbon buildup or whatever in the cylinders so when you go to for it for takeoff does it just stall on you or still halfway off the runway which would be a bad day so I'll leave it running up about a thousand four idle and let's get de los real quick and then we'll be flying one three five three Zulu weather wind one eight zero apps Niner wind variable between one six zero and two two zero visibility one zero sealing one one-thousand broken temperature one three Celsius 0.7 altimeter three zero one zero all right so it's gonna be about nine knots straight cross one today which is actually great so I can show you a little bit on how it performs at crosswind to think like that so let's taxi up and then we'll take off and it's actually a beautiful day to fly today it's still a little bit at the morning so it's cooler and the wit and all right and the clouds are actually really kind of cool-looking formations right now so that's awesome I think it's supposed to clear up as the day goes on but we'll see how it goes well the witness won 8-0 basically it's kind of variable and there are only who we got here are 2 7 & 9 or I'm gonna do 9 or says up closer to that and I saw a couple other planes lighting all night just a few minutes so I look like a Cessna 310 actually which those are pretty rare I don't see many of those then another Cherokee so I'll take Niner and before I get on to an active runway I like to have my run-up and everything done now I'll do one final checklist check before we take off all right now I'm gonna do a control check so I check make sure my right aileron comes up and then I check my elevator comes up then I go over to the left make sure my left aileron is up the rights down and control forward and it sure that the elevator will go down and then I make sure I have make sure rich and then I go up to 1,700 for my run-up I believe you're supposed to do 2,000 but it's a little harder on the engine I think if the brakes don't hold a hundred percent there's always a concern for me looking down here or whatever that the brakes are gonna hold quite enough in a 2,000 it might creep forward a little bit and I'll be in the neck right away so we'll check our lap bag fight decrease right Meg flight decrease now there's no difference so that's great copied on we're going to check for decrease no increase RP works like I've suction up here suctions good bolts are good oil pressures good well taps coming up our amps are good our fuel pressure it's good so we'll then go down to idle we'll check our idle I was good right about 650 700 now I'll bring that back up a little bit now sir I love to write and check our instruments my socks good our air speeds fed our official rises set and we got three zero one zero on our pivot one two three zero which is our frequency for this airport or ATF's off we don't use that GPS is on if I need to get back to the airport with that I can also have to pay per charge and another back T's armed we're on 1200 altitude reporting we're off on our heat and fuses all in avionics are aren't then we'll make sure because on our landing lights on a fuel pumps on four take off all my lights are on nav light has to be on trade ESB mixtures full rich farmers in unlock go on with our intercom volume set not both mags on wheels right tank and flaps are set for takeoff fighter trip centered and HR elevator trip is set for takeoff down here then we'll go over here to check our doors place over windows closed baggage Shores closed down back taxi up the runway before we take off I'll check our checklist and make sure everything's good Holmes County traffic charketa a julius back taxi to runway Niner whole County I have made a call and looks clear to the left i don'ts clear to the right looks like we might have a little tail and taking off from Niner but it's no big deal I was closer tonight way so Billy is a variable wind so by the time we get up here could be switched back into a headwind [Music] now one thing you want to watch out for with the winds like this you can really take you really want to check and make sure there's no finding traffic the other way really be listening to the radio and just looking around at the pattern and everywhere else because there may be a guy who's landing who's not on frequency for the wrong frequency or maybe he's just not talking but I mean it's not illegal if you land without saying a word so we just want to keep out by out for that all right what's happening a 45-second watch final and I can look the other way as well and pull on our checklist pre taxis done run up we did a run up correctly with jitter brakes fuels trims flaked rolls notes your license or mints makes your primer and banks compete vacuum amps fuel pressure oil pressure oil temperature idols clothes for Sherlock everything set free take up flaps are zero we're going to do a normal takeoff fuel pumps on mixtures best power which is full rich here one piece off heater heats as required transponders 1200 altitude we don't have pitot heat at this place so I think but we do not have that I'll set this a one more time right after we take off and are blowing it might change a little bit those windows are closed and locked finding lights on strobes are on times note brakes release I've got our time rate down already on our hobbs and our departure time is 955 all right so before takeoff checklist is complete now on our checklist I don't know if you can see it wants us to rotate at 48 knots which is 55 miles an hour I like to wait to like 60 or 65 it just it doesn't want to climb there especially at your if your it grows so we'll go full throttle 2300 rpms and we'll check on our oil pressure tap make sure our speeds alive and we'll rotate at about 60 65 so hopes county traffic Turkey - it's your last parting runway Niner hopes county all right and we're on centerline move the advance to full power we don't want to just jam it all right airspeed alive we confirm that we're gonna put Hale on it to the width and oil pressures good fuel pressures good Eric up 60 there's 65 so rotate right there make sure we got right brother it says 85 so we'll climb out at 85 and I like to cook guys the throttles and the mixture just to make sure that they don't back out these I don't really have a problem with the backing out the cestas they get back out a little bit I've heard people say they get back out but I like to just keep it guarded especially still a couple thousand feet see here we're just gonna say it's a pattern go right around and we're gonna lay it back on nine Holmes County traffic Turkey to it you'll asserted crosswind runway 9 or helps County alright a partner now the - it's gonna be 22 so we'll still reduce the power getting their nose down as we make our cross would turn and dough got the airport at site I don't like to go over 30 degrees of bank angle this close to the ground I mean that's just my personal preference but I think it's safer and it's good to avoid stalls public County traffic Turkey do it you live pretty jawan runaway night or helps County all right and it slowed down well with the downwards it's got a little late to do our does that checklist there really any of our climate ruse checklist but those are just things like turning off the fuel pump and landing light which we want to keep on because we're lining again assist our mix of fuel pump office from its excellent quite off fly pan open for climbing that crews the topics your fuel tanks and then our to set checklist is just going to be mixture rich in coffees as required fuel proper take it as they want so I'll type it our instruments we got all that all right so well beep and then I'll just make sure that our fuel pump lighting lights on then I'll take your mixers rich as I slowly freak that back to power bring back the power I'll put carpi on that make sure farmers in a lot drunk both thanks heels or the proper tanks and once we slow down I'll hold the nose up get their crap slowed down about 100 I'll put it the first notch of flaps then I'll turn my base Holmes County traffic Turkey - if you lay up spreading left base runway 9 or hopeful County I like to fly this about 95 baby 94 on final final I fly about 85 this thing does sink quite a bit you got to use power for landing but alright I get my landing checklist here appeals on proper tank mixers rich fuel pumps on seat backs are up pops are set belts and harnesses on and air conditioners off getting a little fast break that power back pull the nose up a little bit the second notch a flap said and I'm a team which is about what I want to be for 500 above and we're gonna be flowing out 85 as we come into the final and a little resides of power hopeful County traffic Turkey to a Julia certify nowhere and away nine or hums County I would like today all cross one I like to keep my speed a little bit higher and only twenty degrees it's three football two pi bonds with North Atlantic downwind of the 45 all right we're about where we want to be now only just bring it slip left rudder right aileron and just put it on the runway all right it did float a little bit but I kept some speed in and I only use 20 degrees flaps okay add some cross with but not a bad landing just keep the centerline this thing really does handle crosswind pretty well although I think with the wind wing tips the wind can catch it I push it around a little bit more in the cross 1 so that's just one thing to be mindful of but yeah it's fairly well all right so we're clear the runway hopefully county traffic turkey could you lift clear runway Niner helps County all right so we're gonna bring your copy back on county style 3/4 Delta and drain downwind at a forty-five four Niner home county so we put a copy on landing light feel pop off and our flaps back down and then we're gonna set our takeoff clip back up just for X that we get in so always check it and that's going to be our cleanup after landing checklist flaps up carpet off fuel pump off strokes off weight off stoves landing light off extra light has required pitot heat off we don't pitot heat makes errors required trip takeoff that's not our altitude smog believe it on 1200 and that turns off with our IV on it pull away around into five away from the lid I'm actual about pool thanks Larry okay yeah that's what I thought nice that's the 3:10 sitting up here looks good those things I've always wanted to fly them pretty cool a complaint although I hear the fuel system on them is pretty complex but ok three 1000 that's the cool plane Holmes County style three four shelters running downwind diner home County all right we'll shut it down and I won't be able to talk you through this because when I turn avionics off it's going to cut off later comm that just avionics off then pull the Rick shirts turn off everything and turn off our mags that's about it so alright guys that's it for my review of the Cherokee 180 if this video helped you guys out feel free to smash the like button please subscribe to my channel and ring the bell beside that and you'll get notified every time I release a new video and if you want to drop a comment tell me what you think if you have a question about the plane and I'll try and get back with you alright that's it for today signing off for now I'm Samuel the aviator bye

Channel: SamuelTheAviator

Views: 70,596

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Id: AO-BE-bSXbc

Length: 38min 13sec (2293 seconds)

Published: Sun May 03 2020