What are the biggest changes to the Piper Aztec models? What are the most desirable models and why?

original had short nose, short rear baggage, carburetors, hydraulic pump only on left engine. It was the apache 235 with 250hp

B model from 1962-64. Long nose, bigger rear baggage, still with carbs

The C came out in 1964, fuel injected, optional turbos

1969 D model the instrument panel was updated

1971 an even bigger nose

late 70's saw the Hoerner wingtips and 1-piece windscreen

IMO the sweet spot is the the B model. Relatively lighter airframe and still has carb's. buying an aztec these days is all about having something simple and cheap to take care of.

Privett's primer-yellow aztec is an original short-nose model with turbo IO-540 300HP engines. It's ugly as can be, and a heck of a lot of fun to push up the throttles.

Jeff, are they good airframes? You say they are simple to maintain, that sounds like a good thing to me. Maybe what I need with a wife and 3 kids! How are they on speed and fuel burn?

They are slow and thirsty. They shine at carrying heavy loads out of short, rough strips. They are docile at low airspeeds. They carry ice well. They have huge space inside but not much door to access it.

generally, not really the qualities that are sought after to take the kids from st louis to disney world. hence the market price they command compared to a baron.

If you do decide to look at one, before you do anything else remove the interior side panels and check the steel tubing there. the fuselage structure is welded steel tubing and the side windows leak over the years parked out in the rain. Many of them have rusted out tubes below the windows, the planes are already totaled and the owner has no idea.

Roger that, good to know!

Also, 1976 thru 80's have rectangular stabilator with horns protruding forward. These horns are weights. In '81, Piper went back to the original stabilator. These F models have dual hydraulic pumps.

Nothing much to add to what Jeff says about the model differences. We have a '71 E-model and before that a '74 E-model, flown a C and an F as well. They are great airplanes, I tell people it is like flying a couch. Very docile. Find a good one and they will not break the bank to take care of. The 250 horse Lyc 540's are just loafing out there and will pretty much run forever. Plenty of power too. Short strips and heavy loads are a breeze. Ours is clean and in pretty good rig, we see 170 ktas between 7-9k burning 26-27 gph. The old one would do 162 ktas on 25 gph. I am told it was not uncommon to see a 10 knot difference between Aztecs straight off the production line.

Aztecs are not Barons, and that is both good and bad. Feel free to PM me if you get serious...we've been in the Aztec business a long time!

Sandy

Sandy,

Isn't there an AD about inspecting the fuselage tubing for rust?

Jg

Sandy, what are the major AD’s on these planes? What are the major problems to look for?

Hint: Remove the 2nd row, right side seat. It dramatically improves access.

Hint: Remove the 2nd row, right side seat. It dramatically improves access.

Actually I don't believe that there is John, it is however an area to closely keep tabs on, particularly if the airplane spends a lot of time outside. Jeff is correct that if the problem is not caught and persists for a long enough period, you can be left with a totaled aircraft. The fuselage structure on an Aztec is incredibly robust, there are plenty of crash photos out there which prove that fact, but as you know the tin worm is our worst enemy on our 40+ year old machines.

Sandy

I flew Aztecs commercially for a couple years. Loved them for all the reasons noted above. I flew the E model. So when I was in the market for a twin of course I wanted an Aztec.

I joined BT to learn about Barons. Few a few B55 barons then flew a B58.

I have now owned my B58 for three years. Love it.

Way way better then an Aztec. So happy I bought a Baron B58. Everybody loves getting into it without crawling over the wing and my daughter loves the table in the rear.

Very very happy Baron owner.

Brenda

Michael,

Not any onerous AD's on the Aztec. What AD's there are tend to be pretty run of the mill. There's an AD on the F-model stabilators with the "horns" on the tip to check for cracking in multiple areas. I'm pretty sure there is a permanent fix for that, however there is a good reason that Piper went back to the "hornless" design for the last of the F-model run. I believe the airplane flies much better without them...plus the cracking.

As for problem areas I would start with the exhaust and the cowlings. Not the best design for either, and that is being charitable. The cowlings are a two man job to remove/install, and best those two men have some experience too. The stock exhaust routes a lot of heat along the front/bottom section of the cowlings (which are two separate pieces, so times two), requiring fixes which over time can relegate that section of cowling to a patched up disaster. We just overhauled both engines (2250 hours apiece, one was still running perfectly, different subject!) and at that time installed a greatly improved STC exhaust that eliminates that problem area. I don't recall the name of the company, it wasn't cheap but what the heck is on these things? There is also a cowling redesign STC but it is obscenely expensive.

Second area I would pay close attention too is the elevator cable/bellcrank and the elevator trim system. We had some subtle control feel issues on an E-model that turned into a real mess, and it could have become downright dangerous. We ended up replacing pretty much the entire system back there. Speaking of about 4 years ago an F-model (an extremely nice and well maintained F-model) departed my home airport under benign conditions and experienced a failure of the elevator trim cable on initial climb. Only some superior airmanship prevented 5 fatalities. I heard there was talk of an AD but I am not aware of anything further.

The hydraulic control units are one more thing to watch. In general it is a good and reliable system with good backup(s). Our airplane has one pump and I don't worry much about that. We practice pumping gear up and down with the left engine caged here and there... really isn't much too it, especially considering the benign handling characteristics. However if your control unit goes bad there is one quirk to keep in mind, and that is you can't really buy a hydraulic line kit for an Aztec and expect it to just fit. There is a lot of labor that goes into hand trimming every line to fit. So expect that bill on top of the bill to have the control unit overhauled.

Finally I would say that unless you NEED a turbo Aztec to just stick to the N/A version...but I make that recommendation with pretty much all types of piston aircraft.

Hope that helps!

Sandy

Out here in the mountainous and icy Pacific Northwest, my turbo F model is the only way to go.

Aztecs are fantastic machines and great reliability.