I know you need at least seats 3&4 and the floor board. I am not sure about seat belt attachment issues. If you do this, I am looking for some of the fittings off the floor board of a forward facing seat 3 or 4 so I can install a seat-7 in my Lance. You are looking at a BIG BUCKS conversion.
FYI, before you do the conversion, have your family sit in a club-seat Lance. My family HATES the club seating so we got a forward facing Lance. (Too many kid's feet in a small area.)
I have nearly finished my private license and I am currently flying a Warrior, in 6 months I want to fly a Lance on a 1000NM trip, making a few stops on the journey, the reason I want to take a lance is so I can take 4 guys in comfort and a bit of luggage. I know I will need to train in the Lance, is it a much harder aircraft to changeover too as it is a complex?
I upgraded from a 140 to the Lance. Tony was gracious enough to let me fly in his Lance before I started shopping for one. It's definitely more airplane but nothing insurmountable. To me, it flys like a big Cherokee (which is really all it is).
The insurance company wanted 10 hours of retract time, or make & model, before I could take passengers.
It is a wonderful traveling machine. Flew the family from Florida to New Orleans last month. Very comfortable and it hauls a ton. Our is an all forward-facing, 7 seat model, and I agree with Tony - if you can, have your passengers sit in a club arrangement and then a forward facing version. There are pros and cons to both.
Many years ago, I went from a C-182 to the Lance. It only takes a few hours to transition. Learn to hold a little power on final, hold the nose up, and sometimes add a little power at about 10' to soften the landing. If you are not used to a C/S prop, then there will be a little more learning. The gear was actually easy for me. (knock on wood) You need the gear down to slow the a/c down in the pattern. If you forget, you can't get it down to flap speed easily. If you forget it on takeoff, you will still climb, but the handling is 'all wrong'. If you get one with the auto-extension still in it, make sure you understand it. (I like it and will not disable it.) Putting it in override for each takeoff and re-enabling it once at cruse altitude is a new habit to form.
Make sure you get a CFI that really understands the Lance. My current CFI THINKS he understands it and is old-school with "never over square" and "EGTs never over 1300", both of which are not part of the POH. I just do it his way when he is doing my BFR and IPC, then do it right at other times. I also run LOP and he thinks that going to tear up the IO-540. My IO-540 is at 2000+ hours without a jug being pulled and has run LOP for the last 700+ hours with GAMIs.
I would respectfully suggest that a Lance may be a bit too much aircraft for a newly-minted pilot (<100hrs?)
You should check to see if your insurance will even cover you on that aircraft (if you haven't already).
I am Comm/IFR with 700+ hrs mostly on a -140, and insurance wanted 15hrs dual time before they would cover me. You will likely find signficant dual time rqmts and very high rates if they even agree to take you on.
The Lance is alot of plane for someone who is still getting comfortable with a the whole flying thing. Speeds are higher, and there's more to do, so things are happening much more quickly than in a Warrior. It's easy to get behind the plane. Once you have a few hundred hrs in the Warrior, alot of the stuff that you have to think about now will become instinctive, and that frees up brain cells for the extra stuff you have to think about with the Lance.
For a low-time pilot, I would suggest more of a step-up approach - put a couple hundred hrs on the Warrior, then transition to an Arrow for the complex experience, then the Lance for the speed and weight.
Just my 2-cents. Talk to your insurance first to see if this is even an option for you.
The Lance is a fantastic x-ctry plane, but it does need to be handled correctly.
Pete
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2009 10:50AM by PilotPete.
I have a 1977 Lance sraight tail. Nothing carries more load in its class. I have the forward seating but opted to remove the middle row. I would also be interested in finding club seating. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I live in tampa fl. Keep the plane @ vdf. Not the fastest plane, but the versatility compensates for the lack of speed. 150kts. Not to bad on operational cost either.
When you are ready to move into a Lance give AIG insurance a try. They Quoted me a very affordable quote with only 150hrs. Your best bet is to get IFR rated for that discount. I have 400hrs in the lance so far and you will appreciate the change when you decide to make it.
msochan Wrote:
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> I have a 1976 Piper Lance (straight tail) with approx. 3200 hrs on the air frame. In a recent flight, I had an electrical system failure when the air compressor belt came off and took the alternator belt with it. Unfortunately I didn't notice the loss of charging until my battery was really run down. Upon returning to the field I found I could not lower my landing gear.
Much to my surprise, when I employed the emergency procedures in the operating manual and attempted to deploy the gear manually (via the emergency lever) my gear would not lower. After flying around for nearly an hour and attempting just about everything we could think of, I had to make the tough decision to land gear up. My Lance sustained substantial damage.
When the FAA examiners simulated the emergency condition in my hangar, they found the same problem. The gear will not deploy via the emergency lever. They have now determined that the hydrolic pressure relief valve to which the emergency lever is connected is defective.
Has anyone heard of a similar occurence with these valves?
