Piper PA-28 - Confused on which type to buy? The Differences explained

so you're interested in the piper pa28 and you're wondering which one is for you or at least what is the blasted differences between all of them because yep there are a lot of different variations over the years the pa 28 has been super successful since it was introduced in the 1960s so if you don't know your piper archers from your piper arrows to your pathfinders to your warriors to your decoders then stick with me let's clear all this up i'm going to go over the performance and price of current pa28s and then we'll have a look at the older variations and the costs at the end so we all know a piper pa28 is an unpressurized single engine low wing aircraft with tricycle landing gear popular for flight training of course air taxiing and personal use you might have trained in a pa 28 and maybe you want to know more about the model that you've spent so much time in and so many emotions in one quirk of them they have a single door on the right hand side which is not great for everybody getting out should they need to quickly but that design probably gives some strength to the fuselage so let's take a look at the new ones first before we get into the very complex history of them they come in two categories personal aircraft and trainer aircraft starting with the archer lx this is a 4c to 180 horsepower fixed prop variant capable of 128 knots and 522 nautical miles range the archer dlx is also a four seat but no the d does not stand for deluxe but diesel it has a continental cd-155 diesel engine of horsepower and a three blade constant speed propeller the cd155 engine is interesting because it runs on both jet fuel and diesel dine 590 and accepts any combination of the two according to their website i've put a link to the engine's website below if you want to read more about that the engine does increase its range significantly to 848 nautical miles but slightly reduces the maximum speed to 123 knots the estimated operating costs for this model are around 11 800 us dollars fixed cost per year and 165 us dollars per hour according to this cost estimation sheet that i've got in the link below this video piper offer the same variations with the same performance as trainer aircraft so we have the piper tx which costs around 425 000 us dollars new and the archer dx with that cd155 diesel engine which is going to cost around 485 thousand us dollars and then there's also the smaller pilot p100i with a three-seat configuration arrangement which costs around 304 000 us dollars okay so that's it for current pa-28s more information on them on the pipe website of course right now it's time to look at the older pa28s and clear up some of that confusion around naming first up we have the piper cherokee produced in 1961 with 150 and 160 horsepower lycoming o320 engines so they named them the pa28 150 and 160 respectively easy peasy so far right then they upped the power with a 180 version making it more practical to make use of those four seats with four adults so you could take your three buddies with you the 180 also has an extra window giving it more modern look in 1973 piper made more changes and rebranded turning the 180 into the archer but they first spent a year transitioning their planes and name those transition planes challenges which had a wing increase for a wider wing the next year in 1974 they increased the fuselage length and then the challenger became the archer so in the early years before the challenger and the archer the pa28 150 and 160 were such a success that piper expanded the range to include a 235 horsepower variation and they called that one the charger to compete with the ever popular cessna 182 skylane fuel capacity was increased as was the stabilator area and it got stretched out so that the people in the back had more legroom just to add more confusion though they changed the name from charger to pathfinder until they finished production of the pathfinders in 1977. in 1972 the first dakota was certified which is essentially a pathfinder with the tapered wing then they brought in the lower powered 140 horsepower two plus two seat trainer version in 1964 called the cherokee cruiser in 1966 production of the 150 and 160 cherokees was stopped and the 180 cherokee arrow was introduced which featured the retractable landing gear and a constant speed propeller you can actually get arrows with up to 200 horsepower engines the arrow continued until 1971 to be replaced by the arrow 2 the next year and then the arrow 2 had the 5 inch fuselage stretch for more leg room in the back and the arrow 3 had the semi-tapered wing for greater fuel capacity longer stabilator for those better low speed handlings although production of the cherokee 150 and 160 was stopped in 1966 they reintroduced the cherokee 150 naming it the cherokee warrior in 1973. the warrior had the archer's stretch body and a new semi-tapered wings this is when they actually first introduced that semi-tapered wing then in 1977 piper upgraded the warrior to 160 horsepower and named it the warrior two in 1982 piper introduced the warrior 3 which had an increased useful load of 900 pounds the semi-tapered wing is somewhat debated in the benefits and drawbacks but was introduced to improve stall characteristics and increase the wingspan piper then offered a turbocharged arrow 3 with a continental tsio360f engine of 200 horsepower and an optional three-blade propeller in 1979 they brought in the arrow 4 sporting that distinctive t-tail this is also when the dakota was introduced and the cruiser and pathfinder were then stopped now all into turbocharging things piper offered a turbocharged 200 horsepower dakota in 1979 but demand was low for this so they stopped production of this one the next year there's also a pa-28161 cadet a two-place fixed gear 160 horsepower trainer and if you want a six-seater version of the piper pa check out the piper pa-32 this is also known as the cherokee six wow okay the so there's a lot there and it is complicated i'm hoping that clears things up for you and that you know more about the variation or the one that you want to get or the one that you're flying in if any of this information is wrong let me know in the comments it is a bit of a mind bend to track i've done my best and i've made a list of the various pipers their names and their subtleties which helped me make this video if you want to use it feel free to download it you can sort it by year which shows the linear year of when they made the changes at the moment i've got it grouped up by different variations of pipers i've linked to that in the description below this video so let's take a look at some of the used aircraft prices obviously there's a lot of them on the used aircraft market and prices vary widely for an older 180 cherokee and arrow you're looking at between 40 000 us dollars to 100 000 us dollars and for the arrow threes you're looking at above 100 000 us dollars for the 235 version you're looking at between 90 000 us dollars and 160 000 us dollars and for a 180 archer you're looking at around 70 000 us dollars and for the archer twos between 100 to 200 000 us dollars and for the archer threes you're looking up between 200 000 us dollars to 300 000 us dollars and even more so which is your favorite variation and have you flown in any and want to comment on their particular handling characteristics please let me know in the comments because i'd like to hear that so competitor aircraft that you might want to check out would include the cessna 172 which is a high wing so slightly different but then you've got the groom and american aa5 series and the beachcraft musketeers or bonanza designs i've also made a video on the beachcraft bonanza on my channel and the cessna 172 on my channel as well so you can check those out there for more videos on aircraft performance costs and their history check out my channel pilot mike thanks for watching i hope you enjoyed it please consider giving a like and a sub to this channel it would really help and until next time say flying

Channel: Stories of Aviation

Views: 46,321

Keywords: pilot mike, beechcraft bonanza, beechcraft, bonanza, flying, pilot, touring, aircraft, cirrus, dimond, sling, tsi, sr22, sr20, mike, cost, performance, saftey, build, time, mpg, range, speed, top, landing, take off, takeoff, short field, buyers guide, buyers, guide, buying, kit, autogyros, auto gyro, safey, piper, PA-28, Warrior, archer, arrow, challenger, pathfinder, cruiser, piper pa-28, pa 28, pa, 28

Id: u6IAUsYG5Kg

Length: 8min 56sec (536 seconds)

Published: Fri May 06 2022