Duchess Vs Seminole [Archive]

Jo nathan

25th Jan 2011, 03:02

Looking for peoples thoughts and opinions between the two aircraft.

I have only flown the Duchess so i am in no position to compare.

Factors such as Fuel burn, one engine performance, ergonomics and peoples personal preferance etc etc.

thanks in advance

On Track

25th Jan 2011, 06:15

Have flown both, but neither for many years.

Ergonomically the Duchess is the leader. For starters, there's a door on each side. I think the instrumentation was also more user-friendly.

Not in a position to comment on the economics.

27/09

25th Jan 2011, 06:34

I hear the Duchess can be a problem with some parts, some can be expensive and some hard to come by. I don't think there were that many built, only a few hundred if I recall.

The Seminole would be better from an ownership point of view.

I've never been that impressed with either of them when it comes to performance.

Ted D Bear

25th Jan 2011, 08:29

IMHO, Duchess is nicer to fly and I think marginally better SE performance. No personal experience on the maintenance/ownership side, but I suspect if it's got Beechcraft written on the side it costs more to maintain!

Ted

Bankstown Boy

25th Jan 2011, 22:14

Have flown both but not for a long time. Did all of my initial twin and CIR in the seminole. The one thing I always remembered about first flying the duchie was I felt that I was going to 'fall out' of the front. It distinctly feels nose low compared to the piper.

Also have to agree with Ted D Bear, ask your local mechanic about beechcraft vs piper, the're built well but definatley can cost more to maintain and the mechanics are less likely to love 'em

Howard Hughes

26th Jan 2011, 00:20

The Duchess is far nicer to fly! As for the economics of it I'll leave that to the experts...:ok:

mattyj

26th Jan 2011, 01:33

The Seminoles with turbos are a bit of a handgrenade...never flown one myself but I believe they have manual gates or something and you must be careful on TO power settings..The one that never flew at my work had spat its valves a couple of times due to overboosting

43Inches

26th Jan 2011, 20:58

Both fly much the same with the same performance.

The big difference is that you can fly a new Seminole (under 10 years old) at many schools with modern equipment. The Duchess has been out of production for almost 30 years.

There are very few turbo Seminoles around and the new aircraft do not have a turbo option.