Comanche 260B

So here we are in Placerville, we're just going to do a quick run in traffic at 142 in three miles 45 for left traffic up to 1700 mag. Double check the drop because it's cold, we have fuel and oil pressure, good oil temperature, it's going up

comanche

260, it's I have radios in the center console the old

comanche

s have their radios all down here power flaps nice personal traffic comanche 8874 dad Leaving runway 5 local flight Placeville and we are up there giving the plane a little bump 90 gallons of fuel I feel the clouds evaporating From the trees yesterday it rained a lot and they will also come in two seven Paul Pablo's on the left by the crutch and on the right by the runway five at Placerville and there is Placerville downwind on the right for five days.

I like moonies. People know I like it. moonies this plane the comanches in general are great moonies if you like moonies but can't fit in one or you like it bigger, a little more space but with more payload, then comanche 260. excellent plane 160 knots 11 gallons per hour fly like a cross between a f-33 bonanza and a looney m m20j placeville comanche 74 daddy in a five mile final in placeville but people say they float, they don't really float, they float if you go too fast right now I'm doing 65 years with the stand off and the mains off it doesn't float much, so some people have asked why some of the planes are parked on a road when I make the videos.

Well, in a way they are, but they're not like a highway, it's the highway to the Placerville hangars that were never built, so now we're on this kind of taxiway, if you will, because there are no airplanes available in her, so I just left it because it's a background with no people and no mess, so it's not like they are on a road, therefore, it's a road, I came in the middle of it and there's Don the photographer, hi, I'm mark from sky wagon university, we're making a video about something that's a little out of my wheelhouse, a comanche, um, if anyone comes out. know more about Comanches, feel free to comment and correct me on anything I'm wrong about, but the basic Comanche is the 250, the 250 carburetor, the 59 60 model type, this is actually a 66 Comanche 260.

And these were really good airplanes. because they have the center console panel that everyone wants, they hold 90 gallons of gas, which is great compared to 60. um, they just got some of the little idiosyncrasies of the early airplanes worked out of them. , the 260s were built from '65 to '68 this is a 66 and they are both six inches long this is a

260b

there was a 260 at first just a straight 260. the b is six inches longer than this one and it's all rotating, I mean it's literally six inches more rotating than the The early airplanes had a little bullet shaped rotating wheel with the blade near the cowling, so actually the fuselage on a straight 260 and ac and ab like this is just a spinning wheel so it's the same thing so this one has 540 cubic inches like combing which we'll take a look at so if those two cylinders are an io 360. io 540 and then on the Kamachi 400, they made 148 of them in 68 to 72, another cylinder here and it's a 400 horsepower io720, 22 gallons per hour cruiser type.

It's an exceptional airplane, but it's much more practical, burning about 11 to 13 gallons per hour, reaching speeds of 160 to 170 knots, which is just under 200 miles per hour, and it also has a payload of 1,200 pounds, obviously. , 90 gallons of gasoline. 600 pounds, so 600 pounds of people and six seats, so an identifying feature of a 260 Comanche is three windows, the 250s had side windows and then the second window was shaped a little bit down at the rear rounded and there was no third window, so with 260 there are three windows and six seats, the wing they have is the p-15 p-51 mustang wing, it is just a miniature version of the p-51 mustang wing, it has the shape tapered here at the front and the back is straight. and they have a full flight stabilizer on the back, let me go over there and show you that the landing lights on the tips of the wings have everything moving like on many Cherokees, all the papers, arrows, the turkey on the archers of the 40s, everyone does this. but the whole tail moves and there's an adjustment tab on the back, so in here obviously there's a spa that runs through it this thick and then it goes the other way and then from that spa sticking out of the fuselage to here there's a counterweight that gives it stability that's why it's called a stabilizer but look at this, I have one from an airplane we worked on before they have an advertisement the Comanches have some advertisements that we will talk about this is what is inspected every 500 hours on a Comanche, It goes inside the fuselage.

We'll look at it a little bit closer, so the spa line runs right through here on the fuselage and the counterweight sticks out from here to about here with a lead weight at the end, so when you move the elevator, this makes this can crack so you take it off and inspect around the bolts and around here for cracks every 500 hours and that involves completely removing all the glue so it's a big deal so the way to stop get over it, take this one off like we did on a previous plane, but it was perfect after 60 years and in here is a beefier version that's like big flat sides and much thicker, they don't crack and it's called the horn replacement of the Australian stabilizer and get rid of the kit something like that, but if you're buying a Comanche, see if it has the Australian version and then the other thing that everyone always wants on a Comanche, by the way, luggage door 260. on the left side , vertically opening the above, luggage doors on the right side, hinged on the side, which is actually a pretty cool feature.

What people really want in Comanches is 90 gallons, so the 250 carb planes were 60 and people add the extra tank. but the 260 were all 90. so you have the main auxiliary, the main auxiliary and later I will show you in the cockpit how the fuel system works. It's actually very good right at the beginning of Comanche production in 1957, the first one that was built was a Comanche 180 horsepower they had 180 horsepower, like they were a mooney m20c, a little less powerful for this larger fuselage, They burn 10 gallons an hour, make 135 knots, are not a great cargo hauler, but are quite efficient and enjoyable. small plane and there aren't many, they made them from 57 to 64.

Those are the Comanche 180. Another thing that people like about the Comanches is that the three wheels are the same size. Early Comanches had a smaller nose wheel and tended to form a barrel. the track like a wheelbarrow with the nose down and there is a stc to put the big nose wheel on them, so the three tires are 600 sixes, which also makes them useful for storing spare parts, so that is something that the people search 90 gallon center console radios. One piece windshield. big nose wheel tail horn 80 gear 80 gear 80 is a very important buyer criteria in a command so when you buy one of these you always ask how many hours until the thousand hour gear ad expires again because that one can't be replaced like the Australian horn, this plane has about 500 left, which is six and seven years of flying, it's quite a lot and you'll know when they need it because if you drive a Comanche, you can actually go sideways but go right.

The front of the canopy may be pointing to one side, but the plane is going straight because everything is moving. The Comanche fuel tanks and fuel system we'll get into in a minute. If you only have this, that's 60 gallons. If you have both, it's 90. And I like these tapas. They also have this lid which is cool and they have a recessed well which means the water would come out without getting into the fuel. You undo this and then lift it up. This bolt compresses the rubber, making it thicker and sealing against the side. I mean it's in good condition, these are absolutely excellent gas caps, it just fits in the hole, you fatten it up again and when it gets too stiff to turn, it seals up and then you close it and it's streamlined, it doesn't have a cap, it doesn't It has nothing.

If these planes stopped being produced in 1972, when the factory in Lockhaven, Pennsylvania, flooded and all the tooling was destroyed, the skins, the sheet metal and everything was destroyed, they stopped making them if this plane had been allowed to evolve on Piper's line, if that flight hadn't made it. It happened, these are very competitive with a bonanza of the F-33. I once had an F-33 that had to go from A to B and a Comanche that was at B that had to go back to A on a calm day and I flew one. Back and forth, the F-33 was worth twice as much as the Comanche and the Comanche was slightly faster.

I mean, obviously it's not a bonanza, but if you want to go fast for cheap, it's hard to beat them. we'll go in and take a look at the fuel selector inside the airplane with its fuel system, there's a fuel gauge but there's four tanks, so what they did, which is very efficient, down here between the seats is the fuel selector. fuel and it's you have left main right main right auxiliary left auxiliary so you literally just aimed at the tank that you want to burn which is cool but there is a fuel gauge so if you press these buttons the gauge will tell you what's in that tank so you can point it to the one that's in it will show up anyway because it's in it, but if you want to know what's in your auxiliary, you want to know what's in your right mane, you want to know what's in your left mane, the gauge will show whatever it is, literally just select what you need, a very good system, it has 18, there you go, the auxiliaries have 15 each and the mains have 28 each, so there is a total of 90 gallons and, since we're in the cabin, this handle is fine. here's the gear handle if you lifted it up and pumped it up it needs a little bit of if you lift it up and pump it up that will pump the gear down manually when you transition the gear in flight when you're actually lifting it up and down that's it will move and it is a very good indicator that the gears are moving because it moves with it if you had a problem with the gear your extension handle is here remove this cover with the instructions conveniently on the lid many of the early Comanches did not have brakes foot there are no trailer brakes here like this one has them the 260's have them many don't have them and instead they have this center pull so when you're taxing it even on some 60's cherokee 180 140 it's the same thing so when you're taxiing on one without brakes, you literally just brake here and then you steer it and then you brake it, you brake it, that still works, it's very effective but it's very familiar and more like any other airplane that has toe brakes, which is good, but there aren't any. on the right side, this is what it would look like on an older comanche that doesn't have handbrakes on either side so the trim on comanches is always on the headliner, it looks like a VW windshield, window regulator and the way to remember. what's the direction here's your indicator, but you never actually look up, you do it by feeling if you're going on this side of the arc, so think about the pilot's side of the arc that's nose up because you're moving away from the nose. . and that's with the nose down because you're going forward.

I always think of it as nose down and nose up and you'll always get it right. It's very effective, I mean, in a total flight, take off, land, the crews do everything that you would probably just do. It's so much, but you know, that's the finish up there, it's cool to have it on the roof, so that's a brief history of Comanches in general and specifically this 260, 260 fuel injected horsepower, 540 engines, the later planes, um, if you like these. videos, subscribe on the link below, click the little bell that will give you notifications and if you see any errors in this because I'm not a Comanche expert, feel free to comment below and I'll be happy to hear from you and then Remember that They only made 1026 of these so if you want one get it now, they are getting old, thanks.