Well the 235 is even more of a beast!!

IN PA28's I have had 2 alternators fail-one leading to a tma bust:ouch:
Starter fail,and a load of smoke all of a sudden that cleared, apart from that reliable enough for me thanks!:ok:

That reminds me - I should be checking the alternator charge ammeter during my FREDA chech...

I thought the A in FREDA was local altimeter setting. Good Idea to check the Ammeter aswell though.

When is the "ALT" annunciator light supposed to come on? Mine didn't do sh1t when the alternator was knackered!

Jonnyboy,

If the alternator field circuit breaker fails, it will take the alternator off line, and there might not be an "ALT" annuciator iluminated. This happened to me in a Cessna (same system probably) and I flew around for who knows how long on only the battery. The day VFR discharge really is not enough to notice on a 60 amp ammeter. Finally I noticed because the battery went flat just as I got the flaps all the way down for landing at another airport. I Aborted the landing and flew home that way! It took a while to troubleshoot... (alternator was fine though)

Cheers, Pilot DAR

I've been flying well maintained PA28s for about 65 hours now. No problems with any of them.

On the other hand, if there were, I like to think that the forgiving nature of the type would be helpful in preventing me losing control whilst worrying about the problem!

HH

Jonnyboy102 - after about 250 hrs in PA28 series (Cherokee 140, Cadet, Warrior, Cherokee 180, Archer, Arrow) N-, G-, F-, ZS-, and C-reg'd aircraft, the only real "tech" problems I can recall are a sticky starter motor in FL, a busted nose gear oleo while taxying in SA and a dodgy transponder in GB. Not much really. As mentioned, PA28s are built like tanks and handling-wise are very forgiving - if a little boring in the long run...

Hello fliers,

Remind yourselves when considering the "reliability" of the aircraft, that very many parts, particularly nearly everything bolted to the engine mount, everything electrical, and all avionics and instruments are really not Piper parts, and so difficulties with these could as easily occur in any type in which they were installed. Their reliability (or lack of) should not affect opinions on the aircraft type in which they are installed.

What you would really be considering when judging a particular type's reliability would be airframe and some systems. Unreliable to me would be airframe, landing gear and control system problems. Piper aircraft are very good in these respects in my opinion.

Pilot DAR

I owned a PA28-140 for a couple of hundred hours and it was reliable, once I took care of all the snags the previous owner had neglected. I now own a Beech C23 that is also reliable. Lycoming engines are a large part of that.

The only issue I had with the PA28: it was a bear in cold starts in winter. No preheat basically meant no start. The O-360 in the Beech is marginally better at cold starts but I put in a Tanis engine heater, a must in Canada and have not had problems since.