Tom from Poland and Cherokee C
Hi,
I am Tom and I come from Poland. I joined this lifestyle at the age of 15 and since then it has been my aviation tribute. I started airline flying in 2015 and honestly, my General Aviation dreams were left behind due to many races I had to go through. But finally I woke up from this chaos and I have found time to do a little bit of VFR flying. I had been lucky to have a chance to buy a mint condition PA-28-180 Cherokee C (S/N 3966) from a friend of mine. We connected our souls immediately and… here I am. I still can’t believe it’s happening for real. I am proud of having a chance to join your community and I hope you will accept me here. If you need something, I am always happy to help and assist, if only I know how (PS. I am honest also, so if I don’t, I will tell you straight a way) ;)
Comments
Finally some pics:
Welcome to the group!
Ben
Tom;
Welcome to the group!
Beautiful airplane!
Jim "Doc Griff" Griffin
PA28 - 161
Chicago area
Wow, a "black beauty", congrats tom! Where is the plane based?
carl
48 yrs A/P IA DAL aircraft inspector. 172N
Welcome Tom, I especially like your 1966 Cherokee 180 as I have been flying mine for almost 40 years! Congratulations, I know it will last a long time ;) Tell us about your panel and places you like to fly!
Regards,
Mike
Thanks, I am very grateful for such a warm welcome from you Boys! The “Black Beauty” is based in EPGD/GDN, where I live and operate at work on daily basis (call me if you are here, I am at your service). I am waiting for a nice quality, 3- 5 mm foam and UV protected, water resistant covers for most of the airplane. For winter time I will put her to the hangar in EPRZ/RZE :) I don’t want to fly her in winter time, since here the weather and icing are not funny at all :/ she has 2 years old paint done in Germany, by approved organisation (previous owner’s investment). While I am waiting for paperwork to be finished I did an engine run up today, because as far as I remember it should be done once per month, right? Engine is running smooth and even seating with just prop rotating is such a pleasure! I attach some photos of avionics below. I am planning to buy a new glareshield (the current one has some damages) and while doing that I will install new windshields I think- dream is to put UV Grey thick ones :) ahhh dreaming dreaming dreaming :) PS. Old school is to listen to the engine, monitor RPMs and lean, but there are nice digital gauges nowadays I have to say :) and I like the previous owner investment into G5 and GTX328 :)
Enjoy flying your Cherokee Tom! As equipped, it will take you on many adventures. You can make thoughtful upgrades as you see the need. Over the years I have found that investing in something used every flight, reduces workload, increases safety, or personal comfort is worth a careful investment.
Regards,
Mike
About that idea of running the engine just to run the engine. Common idea, but is actually known to hurt over time.
There is a lot of evidence that the oil needs to heat up to 180*F (~82.2*C) for a while. There are two reasons for this threshold:
- lower temperatures will not evaporate water in the oil, which leads to corrosion.
- the engine naturally creates water as a byproduct of combustion, and some of it goes into the crankcase.
If the oil is able to reach 180*F from ground operations, that is good news. If it cannot get warm enough, might consider whether there are other options for the winter such as pickling the engine. Or, just find a good-enough day once a month and go fly somewhere for a 500 zloty hamburger.
Regarding windshield replacement, if the budget allows, there are comments about getting a single pane which replaces the current two pane system, along with thicker material than original.
Here is an operational tip from experience with that generation of carburetor engine. Chances are good that the POH is silent regarding carb heat as part of the landing phase. From experience, it is a worthwhile idea to turn the carb heat On somewhere on Downwind, and then turn it Off on Final. I actually had significant loss of power from some carb ice on Final during a summer day in an Archer which uses a similar engine. Fortunately I was quick enough to try carb heat based on the stumbling behavior of the engine, and restored power back to normal. As a result of that incident, I made it a habit to heat the carb in all the carbureted Cherokees that I flew and never experienced ice again. A hangar neighbor with a PA-28-235 also experienced a scare from carb ice on Final during a summertime landing about a year ago. I mentioned the carb heat trick to the neighbor, and since then, never had another ice-up.
Congratulations Tom, I wish you many wonderful hours in the air in your Cherokee!
+1 on what @jacobsja said. Piston engine airplanes want to be flown regularly to maintain “good health”. I live in the Pacific Northwest, so I am very aware of icy clouds in the winter, but even during that time of the year, there are some sunny days, or unusually warm days, so as much as possible, take your plane up and go somewhere, or even just practice in the pattern for a while.
You might be familiar with an anti-corrosion oil additive called Camguard. It is not a substitute for regular flying, but it helps to keep the internal engine corrosion in check.
Karol Zadora
PA28RT-201T Turbo Arrow IV
Seattle Area
Nice paint job !
Am curious, does the plane's landing light look like this?
Haha, great idea! My son will love it 😂 speaking of light is it a hard job to change to LED?
Thanks 😎 I purchased like this from the previous owner- let’s see how it will behave? I am a little bit concerned regarding heating etc. But looks very original :D and it’s fresh (2 years)
Physically changing the landing light is one of the easiest jobs: remove the old, and install the new. It is that simple. IIRC (If I recall correctly), the only tool for this job on a Cherokee is a Phillips head screwdriver.
The hard part is paying for the LED light. Only good news with this is that once you buy the LED, it is probably the last one you will ever need.
This does bring up a consideration item: do some research as there are differences between manufacturers of LED PAR36 lights. I have the current generation WAT and am loving them. I know that there are other pilots with different top brand LED lights who love their manufacturer's light as well. Main focus items are the lumen output and beam pattern as high lumen values are hurt by a poor beam pattern.
Another item to consider is adding a pulse feature to the landing light if this is possible. Adding a pulse feature might require a mechanic to do the job, or at least a mechanic's signature. Reasoning for adding pulse to the landing light is that under 10,000 feet altitude, the FAA recommends to turn all lights On for better collision avoidance. Switching the landing light over to pulse mode while in flight will help other pilots identify your plane earlier than if the light is either Off or continuous.