The Arapaho is still a Twin Comanche, but with refinements. It came from Piper's "Mr Potato Head" school of airplane design, where engineers went to the parts bin and used what they had, but in new ways. It's a design philosophy that keeps production costs low, and future maintenance costs low. It's the main reason that Pipers in general are easier, and much less expensive to maintain than any other brand.

The wing changes accommodated the longer landing gear, and the change to a single 60 gallon bladder per side. That's about it. The fuselage is the same, but with enlarged window openings.

The Arapaho didn't make it into production simply because the accountants killed it off in favor of the Seneca, and the soon to be released Seminole, which was in development at the same time. Cheaper and faster to build wins the day over higher quality in the world of bean counting.

I loved my PA30 Twin Comanche with counter rotating engines. I would have kept it longer except for the availability of parts (or rather, lack thereof) for Twin Comanche specific items like the fuel selector valve and fuel solenoid valves (I had tip tanks on mine). And the overall complexity of the airplane vs. its performance seemed a bit silly in the end with almost every flight resulting in one new little failure that needed attention.

I would fall behind V tail Bonanzas on cross countries and it had similar performance in the real world to a Cirrus....but with far more to keep my hands busy. (6 levers, 4 fuel tanks, 2 cowl flaps, landing gear vs 2, 2, 0, 0 on the Cirrus). There was a time when flying a twin was cool and it seemed worthwhile.

I hope someone gives this Arapaho a good home. I would be a bit concerned about the fuel system and landing gear as items that do wear and will need parts.

What certification category would it be under? With some avionics updates and cosmetic freshening it could still be a worthwhile airplane to own and fly assuming commonality with the PA39.

If a collector has to have it and put it in "Jay Leno's airplane garage collection" ok I get that.

For the rest of us?? A flight school airplane with yuk paint and a yukkier interior, probably ridden hard and put up wet. You can't even realistically part it out.

You'd have to twist my arm and talk me into offering $20K for it,...and that would be just for the engines. How can you justify more?

Curious to know what they get for it, but $199 is a pipe dream. I afraid someone is about to take a very wet bath on a one-off airplane.

Ok, call me bad names for being a buzz killer!

Let’s all pitch in some cash and do a group buy and save it !

Dunno how hard its use was but at 1270 hrs TTSN, 15 SMOH (probably had 1240ish in 2018 when he got it), its relatively very young.
The 1965 C182H here is 2250ish. Had mostly issues of no use, rather than of use, with it when we got it in 2016 at 1970 TTSN.

The FAA registry shows Arapaho N9997P as deregistered.

The N number now belongs to a Cessna 182, as of April 2017.

And has no data plate. Piper removed it when they donated it to Purdue.

I'm not sure what you would do with a sole survivor plane that can only be used in Experimental Exhibition category.

It's a fully registered, fully certificated aircraft.

It has never been used by the public. It acquired it's 1200 hrs as a Piper company transport, running around and between Lock Haven and Vero Beach.

The biggest issue I see is a lack of PA-40 specific service manuals, even though it is about 70% or so a PA-39. The biggest differences are fuel and gear systems.

George

Not according to the seller:

"Although serial number 3 was the only Arapaho that had a standard airworthiness certificate, when it was donated to Purdue University in 2005 the data plate was removed. After we flew the aircraft to Texas on a ferry permit, the FAA completed a conformity inspection, (see pictures), showing the aircraft is in compliance with the TCDS. It currently has an experimental-exhibition airworthiness certificate due to the original data plate being removed. If a replacement data plate can be reacquired from Piper, the aircraft can be put back as a standard category aircraft. The experimental-exhibition airworthiness certificate allows day/night/ifr/vfr operations with all 4 seats occupied. Flight training, maintenance test flights and flights to and from airshows/fly-ins are allowed."

Oops

Well almost. I wonder if Piper would reissue the data plate?

George

Maybe if you got them really drunk.

Not according to the seller:

"Although serial number 3 was the only Arapaho that had a standard airworthiness certificate, when it was donated to Purdue University in 2005 the data plate was removed. After we flew the aircraft to Texas on a ferry permit, the FAA completed a conformity inspection, (see pictures), showing the aircraft is in compliance with the TCDS. It currently has an experimental-exhibition airworthiness certificate due to the original data plate being removed. If a replacement data plate can be reacquired from Piper, the aircraft can be put back as a standard category aircraft. The experimental-exhibition airworthiness certificate allows day/night/ifr/vfr operations with all 4 seats occupied. Flight training, maintenance test flights and flights to and from airshows/fly-ins are allowed."

Because typically, the Experimental-Exhibition certificate has restrictions on when and where you go without making a report to the FAA each time.

Because typically, the Experimental-Exhibition certificate has restrictions on when and where you go without making a report to the FAA each time.

$199,000 or Best Offer.

I have a feeling there will be a large gap between $199,000 and “best offer”.

I wonder if all the tooling for it died in the flood with all of the Twinkie stuff??