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FLIGHT TEST
Piper’s
Venerable
Seminole
JIM DAVIS
How to pick
your instructor
Back O’ Bourke
Shelley Ross on Trilby
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012
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Airvan around the world
The odyssey ends in triumph
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40
Flight Test: Piper PA-44 Seminole
JOHN ABSOLON
australianflying.com.au
A Seminole Moment
With new light twins coming on stream, you would be forgiven for thinking the writing is on the
wall for the older ‘tin’ types. John Absolon had the opportunity to evaluate the venerable Piper
Seminole and compare it to the new generations of twin trainer.
hen I told a few
of my flying mates
that I was going
to fly the Piper
Seminole as part of a
flight review, I received
varying comments
ranging from stories
about their experience with the twin
trainer during their training, to some
quite derogatory names that had
been attributed to the aircraft.
Love it or hate it, the truth of
the matter is that the Seminole is
a very capable and cost effective
twin trainer that has endured in the
training market for over 30 years in
all parts of the world, including being
used by one military operator. It has
outlasted most of its competitors.
Currently there are only a handful
of twin-engined light aircraft that are
built predominantly for the twin IFR
training role. These mainly consist
of the Seminole and the Lycoming
powered Diamond DA42-360 or
DA42-NG diesel. The latter is also
marketed as a four-seat personal twin
and has been reviewed in Australian
Flying in both its forms previously.
Although not as widely used, the
Rotax powered Tecnam P2006T
is also a capable twin trainer. The
remainder of the twin training role
around Australia is filled by older
variants of Beechcraft twins as well
as older Senecas and Seminoles.
The Piper PA-44-180 Seminole
is really the only twin currently
being built in the USA that is being
marketed almost directly for the
training role. Piper is still one of
the most trusted brand names in
AUSTRALIAN FLYING November - December 2012
general aviation with a range of
aircraft from the single Warrior–
designed mainly as an ab-initio
trainer–to the turbo-prop Meridian
personal or business aircraft.
The PA-44 Seminole started life
back in 1978 as a four seat twinengined aircraft built around the well
proven PA-28 Cherokee and later
Warrior fuselage. The single engine
was replaced with a streamlined
nose section while the wings were
redesigned to mount twin Lycoming
O-360 four cylinder engines. The
wing plan-form retained the tapered
outer panels that were introduced on
the Warrior model of the PA-28.
Using essentially the aft fuselage
of the Arrow IV, the Seminole also
inherited the all-moving horizontal
T-tail tailplane as well.
In the latest variants of the
Seminole, Piper has installed twin
Lycoming engines so that the propeller
rotation is what is called counterrotating; that is, each engine rotates in
the opposite direction to the other.
This opposing rotation avoids one
of the problems in handling single
engine failures in a light twin: failure
of the critical engine. The critical
engine is the engine that, should it
fail, will cause the biggest yawing
effect on the aircraft.
If both engines rotate clockwise
as in a normal Lycoming installation
(as viewed from the rear), then the
combined thrust line would be
slightly offset to the right side of
the aircraft’s centreline. Therefore,
should the left engine fail, the yawing
effect would be greater than if the
right engine had failed and more
rudder would be required to offset
this yawing tendency.
By installing engines with
opposite directions of rotation, the
thrust lines can be kept closer to the
aircraft’s centreline.
Lycoming manufactures the
180-horsepower O-360 engine that
is fitted to the PA-44-180 Seminole
in two variants that rotate in
opposite directions. The right engine
being a LO-360-E1A6D that rotates
counter-clockwise as viewed from the
rear. There is no gearbox required,
just two different model engines and
two different propellers to cater for
the counter rotation.
An obvious heritage
Walking around the latest Seminole
you can’t help but notice some of the
ancestry derived from the Warrior
single-engine trainer.
The Seminole has the same
window and cabin arrangement as
the Warrior, but it gets its T-tail
from the Arrow IV. The all-moving
horizontal stabilator has a near full
span trim tab across the trailing
edge. This tab is an anti-servo
tab; that is, when the tailplane is
deflected, say, upwards, the tab
deflects further thereby tending to
drive the tailplane back towards the
neutral position.
This action reduces the tendency
for the pilot to over-control in pitch
because of the large effectiveness
that an all-flying stabilator has over
pitch authority.
The rudder, which is fitted with
a large manually activated trim tab
that is also an anti-servo tab, is also a
little larger in area than its Warrior
ancestor with the larger area
required for directional adequate
control should an engine failure
occur. One advantage of such a large
rudder and tab is that it decreases
the Minimum Control Speed
Airborne (VMCA) to be actually lower
than the stall speed.
The trailing edge flaps are of the
simple hinged design the same as the
Warrior and are operated similarly
by a mechanical system from the
floor mounted handle; simple and
reliable as proven for years in the
Warrior design. Each wing flap
section extends under the aft part of
each engine nacelle so that no part
of the flap is wasted by an intruding
engine nacelle’s streamlined shape.
The Seminole sits atop
a conventional retractable
tricycle landing gear. The gear is
hydraulically retracted with the
hydraulic system being electrically
powered. Raising the gear switch
to UP powers the pump to supply
pressure to raise the gear until it
is retracted. Once the gear is up,
the pressure is locked in the line to
TOP: Wheels out on short
final for Runway 35 at
Moorabbin.
LEFT: Regardless of
whether you are used to
flying Warriors, Archers or
Arrows, you will find the
design of the Seminole is
classic Piper.
November - December 2012 AUSTRALIAN FLYING
41
42
Flight Test: Piper PA-44 Seminole
australianflying.com.au
42
Est. 1937
75th Anniversary
After 30 years of construction,
there must be something right in
the original design.
ABOVE: The Seminole’s handling
characteristics are classic Piper; like
an old friend revisited.
RIGHT: Roll reversals from 45o to
45o were standard performance for a
twin trainer.
hold the gear retracted, there are no
mechanical up-locks.
To lower the gear in an emergency
situation, you only need to pull the
Emergency Gear Extension knob
on the instrument panel and the
hydraulic pressure is released from
the system and the gear will free
fall and with the help of springs and
gravity will lock in position.
To ensure that the nosewheel is
fully lowered, there is small convex
mirror on the inboard side of the left
engine cowl so that the pilot can see
the nosewheel when fully extended.
The usual three green lights on the
panel indicate when each landing
gear leg is locked down.
To back up the indications and
also to remind the pilot if he has
forgotten to lower the gear, a warning
horn will sound when the throttles
are retarded to a low MAP.
The nosewheel is steered through
the rudder pedals via a direct link
with some spring balancing to balance
any shock loadings, but to all intents
and purposes, it is a direct link. The
steering forces are quite light and with
the toe-operated disc brakes, there is
no problem in ground handling.
The retracted landing gear is covered
by doors when retracted with the
exception of the main gear tyres which
remain exposed but with their outer
surfaces lying flush with the underside
of the wing. A small flush ‘hub cap’
can be fitted to further reduce drag
when the gear is retracted but had been
removed from the test aircraft.
Slightly offset to the right side
of the nose of the Seminole is
the powerful landing light. New
Seminoles are fitted with a modern
multiple LED combination unit the
same as the one that had been fitted
to the test aircraft after market.
Just above the landing light is the
NACA-style air scoop for the cabin
heater. This heater is a combustion
heater that burns aircraft fuel to
supply heated air to ducts under
the cabin floor with outlets at each
seat and the windscreen defrosting
AUSTRALIAN FLYING November - December 2012
outlets. The exhaust of the
combustion heater is a small pipe on
the lower right side of the nose cone.
The fresh air that is distributed
through the overhead grills in the
cabin is ducted from a louvered
air intake on the left side of the
aft fuselage and boosted by an
electrically powered blower.
The twin Lycoming four-cylinder
engines develop 180 horsepower each
and drive through Hartzell constant
speed props. They are cooled via the
customary twin air intakes either side
of the prop but their outlet is controlled
by mechanically operated cowl flaps on
the under side of each nacelle.
Stored behind the firewall in each
nacelle are the twin 205-litre fuel tanks
that are filled through caps under
access panels on the top of each nacelle.
The fuel selection controls labeled
ON, OFF and X-FEED are located
on the floor between the two front
seats giving the pilot the ability to
select the fuel ON or OFF for each
engine and to transfer fuel from
one side to the other in the event of
an engine failure to use all the fuel
remaining through the good engine.
Of course, in the unlikely event of
an engine shutdown, it is paramount
that the pilot should check the fuel
selections using a checklist when
transferring fuel to avoid running
out of fuel for the good engine.
Transferring fuel will also help to keep
the aircraft laterally balanced with the
asymmetric consumption of fuel.
Interior Designs
Stepping into the Seminole was
like getting back in touch with an
old friend, and I was immediately
familiar with Piper’s layout of
controls; although most were
somewhat more modern than the
late 1960s Cherokee 140 that I had
learnt to fly in.
The centre-mounted mechanical
flap handle was still there but the
coffee grinder style ceiling mounted
elevator trim handle was gone.
Adjusting the seat forward was
done by sliding the seat forward on
the floor rails and locking it into
position with a handle across the
lower front of the seat.
With my longish legs, this left
very little room for anybody that
would want to sit in the back. It’s this
rather limited back seat room that
lends the Seminole to be mainly used
as a multi-engine trainer.
The view forward is a little limited
by the rather high instrument panel,
the long nose profile and the lowish
Start to finish.
Since the late 1930s, the Piper training line of aircraft have taught tens of thousands of
students to fly. Today, the Piper training fleet is recognized around the world for being
the most complete training line available - from a single-engine fixed gear aircraft up to
a medium-sized turbocharged twin. With consistent features, layouts and avionics
suites extending up throughout the line, training is made efficient and effortless, as
flight students continually step up and achieve rating after rating.
Start your flight journey on piper.com.
44
Flight Test: Piper PA-44 Seminole
seating position. Also the seating
position, when correctly adjusted,
means that you are sitting just behind
the wing leading edge, and with the
broad-chord wing section and large
engine nacelles mounted slightly
forward and quite close to the fuselage
sides, the view below and to the side
is a little more restricted than I would
have expected compared to the other
light twins.
What was new was the
instrumentation. Gone was the
vacuum-powered artificial horizon and
DG and in their place in this particular
Seminole was a modern AviDyne
Entegra EX5000 R7.0 EFIS system.
The left hand screen was configured
as a Primary Flight Display (PFD)
and the right hand screen as a
Multi-Function Display (MFD)
that displayed the relevant engine
indications of Manifold Pressure,
RPM, Oil temp and pressure,
exhaust gas temperature (EGT) and
CHT, fuel flow and quantity and the
electrical system volts and load.
The MFD could also be used to
display a map or a chart display if
the appropriate data bases have been
optioned and loaded.
These two large identical screens
almost filled the panel along with
a centrally-mounted stack of twin
Garmin GNS 430 NV/COM/GPS
avionics made this 30 year old design
look like a modern aircraft designed
to train tomorrow’s commercial pilots.
The twin Garmin GNS units were
surmounted by the S-Tec autopilot
control panel and the Garmin audio
controls and a row of warning and
caution lights alerting the pilot to the
various systems’ statuses.
A standby ASI, attitude indicator
and altimeter occupied the far left
side of the panel in a vertical stack
arrangement. To the right and
low on the panel were the Garmin
Transponder and a King ADF.
Piper advertises that the 2012
model of the Seminole is now fitted
with the Garmin G500 EFIS, which
consists of two smaller six-inch
screens on the left side of the panel.
australianflying.com.au
As this Garmin EFIS doesn’t have
all the same MFD capabilities when it
comes to engine indications, the usual
round dial Manifold Pressure and
RPM engine instruments sit between
the EFIS and the avionics stack.
Mounted in the centre quadrant
were the usual combinations of twin
throttles, RPM and mixture levers.
Below these were the carby heat
levers and even further down were
the cowl flap controls.
Between the seats and mounted in
a small quadrant is the manual pitch
trim wheel. This backs up the electric
system which has an activation switch
on the left hand yoke only
To the right of the elevator manual
trim wheel is the manually-operated
‘hand brake’ style flap handle.
Behind these controls is the rudder
trim wheel and indicator.
I just found that activating these
controls mounted on the floor was
a little bit of a reach down for me
requiring me to actually bend forward
and down to get to them. Also, when
flying the Seminole from the right
seat, I had to move my left hand from
the engine controls to operate the
trims which could be a problem in an
asymmetric situation because it would
mean leaving the throttles unguarded.
It’s always a good idea to guard
the engine controls when in an
asymmetric condition to avoid the
inadvertent reduction of the controls
of the one good remaining engine;
could be embarrassing!
The landing gear switch is
located just to the left of the throttle
quadrant with the associated three
green indicator lights sitting side be
side just above the switch.
The emergency landing gear
knob is just beside the wheel-shaped
gear switch. Raising the guard and
pulling the emergency knob releases
the hydraulic pressure from the
system holding the gear up and
allows the gear to free-fall into the
down position.
The parking brake knob is
located directly under the left hand
yoke and as a result could easily be
obscured from view of the left hand
seat pilot. I would prefer to have it
in clearer view.
These are all minor points of
what is a rather well laid out panel,
certainly much better than the
‘steam’–sorry–vacuum-driven affair
that I had experienced the last time I
flew a Piper trainer.
Cabin ventilation is provided by
two overhead fresh air outlet grills.
On the ground, taxiing with the
door slightly ajar or by opening the
direct vision window located in the
left side forward window will give a
little more airflow to cater for those
hot Australian summer days.
OPPOSITE
PAGE: Piper put
T-tails on several
designs in the
early 1980s, but
only retained it on
the Seminole.
LEFT: With 180
horse Lycomings
on each wing, the
PA-44 is an ideal
trainer, but still
gets along at a
reasonable speed.
As it was quite a cold windy day at
Moorabbin on our test, we decided to
close and lock the cabin door instead
of leaving slightly ajar while taxiing.
The door is secured by the
traditional Piper method of rotating
the latches at the top and front edge
of the door. Should the door not be
locked completely and come open in
flight, there is a checklist action that
requires the pilot to slow the aircraft to
reduce the air loads before attempting
to re-close and lock the door.
The preflight checklist includes
a multitude of items for this type
of aircraft, but at least it would get
students to appreciate the types of
procedures they would use in their
careers later as commercial or airline
pilots. There’s no ‘kick the tyres,
master switch ON, light the fires and
we’re off’ in the Seminole.
Starting the twin Lycomings was
fairly straight forward and with the
Avionics Master ON, the Avidyne
EFIS began its boot-up process
and after the appropriate engine
temperatures were warmed up into the
green, we taxied for the run-up bay.
Taxiing the Seminole is fairly
standard for a Piper aircraft. The
nosewheel is directly linked to the
rudder pedals and steering forces are
quite light to taxy around bends on
the taxiway or to keep the aircraft
straight in the moderate crosswind
that was blowing.
On long straight runs especially
when the wind was behind us, I
needed to give quite an application of
brake to drastically slow the aircraft
and then let it accelerate away again
to avoid riding the brakes to control
the taxy speed.
Lining up on runway 35L at
Moorabbin, and with a smooth
application of full power, the Seminole
accelerated quite rapidly. Easing back
on the control column initially didn’t
generate the rate of rotation at liftoff
that I was expecting and I had to use
quite a bit more pressure.
Getting Going
After climbing aboard into the right
seat of the Seminole and adjusting
my seat, we were ready to get going.
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AUSTRALIAN FLYING November - December 2012
November - December 2012 AUSTRALIAN FLYING
45
46
Flight Test: Piper PA-44 Seminole
australianflying.com.au
Today’s Seminole owes a lot
in heritage to yesterday’s
Piper Warrior and Arrow IV.
The elevator pitch trim had been
correctly set and confirmed during
the pre-takeoff checklist; it just
needed a good pull back to go flying.
Once away from the ground, all
the dodgy stories that had been
related to me by colleagues seemed
erroneous as the Seminole climbed
away at a good rate of climb at 88
KIAS; more than enough to have to
adequately anticipate any low level
altitude restraint in leveling off.
Care needs to be exercised in
controlling the acceleration prior to
gear retraction as the retraction speed
of 109 KIAS could easily be exceeded.
Heading out to the area to the
south of Moorabbin at 2500 feet,
the Seminole delivered 130 KIAS
at 23 inches and 2300 rpm. The
MFD engine display showed a fuel
consumption of 11 US GPH per side.
My initial impression of the
handling was again like an old
friend revisited. Although faster
than the PA-28s that I had flown
many years ago, the handling
characteristics were classic Piper.
I found I needed minimal rudder
input to balance turns.
Synchronising the engine RPM
was a bit of a chore considering
there was a little bit of a stagger
in the pitch levers evident. Again
this is an aircraft that has actually
been flying since 2008 so it’s
understandable, plus it had recently
had some engine work carried out.
Once the beating in our ears was
solved, we continued our cruise out
to the area and eventually up to
4-5000 feet where I wanted to have a
look at the general handling qualities
including stalling and asymmetrics.
For a T-tail aircraft the stalling
characteristics were fairly straight
forward. The first noticeable
warning was with the closing of the
throttles, you immediately get the
‘hey idiot you’ve left the wheels UP’
warning horn.
It was a bit annoying every
time the throttle was closed, but
I’d rather have that in a training
twin than have the alternative
consequences: a wheels-up
landing. The horn can be canceled
if necessary by pressing the mute
switch above the standby ASI. On
this occasion we elected to cancel
the warning as we would soon be
increasing the power setting.
In the clean configuration the stall
warning horn began sounding at 67
KIAS with pre-stall buffet becoming
more noticeable at 64 KIAS
accompanied by a slight wing drop.
In the approach configuration this
speed reduced to close to 55 KIAS.
Flying out of whack
Next I explored the asymmetric
handling by simulating an engine
failure without actually shutting the
engine down.
This was achieved by setting the
propeller control to high RPM and
then advancing the throttle to achieve
an engine RPM to 2180 to simulate the
drag condition of a feathered engine.
At 5000 feet and with the
right engine set in this condition,
we were able to achieve a rate of
climb of 300 fpm at 88 KIAS
whilst holding 5 o of bank toward
to the left. Rudder forces weren’t
that heavy to maintain the skid
ball centered.
After restoring symmetrical
power, I checked the roll rate in some
turn reversals from 45o to 45o with
fairly normal rates of 3-4 seconds.
The descent back to Moorabbin
was somewhat drawn out as we
kept the power set at 18 inches and
2200 RPM to keep the landing gear
warning horn from sounding. This
resulted in a descent at 140 KIAS
and 500 fpm.
Entering the circuit area, the first
landing was demonstrated to me
from a long straight-in approach.
After the touch-and-go, my
attempt from the next circuit
resulted in a go-round from the
flare. After having approached at
80 KIAS and while approaching
the flare, I began to reduce the
power and raise the nose to reduce
the rate of descent.
Like on take-off, I found the
stick forces a little higher than I
had expected and when the ground
was still approaching at a high rate,
I over-flared and decided that the
better decision was to go around.
The engine response was
immediate and we were quickly
climbing away for another attempt.
The full-stop landing was much
better. On landing I found the
braking to be very efficient with
relatively light forces; this made it
easy to make the desired exit taxiway.
In all I found the Seminole to
be a very capable twin trainer; it
doesn’t have the world beating
performance to leave your stomach
back on the runway as you launch
airborne or to exhibit single engine
rates of climb to compete with a
modern single engine aircraft; this
is not its role.
The role of the twin trainer
is to provide the student with
a platform where the pilot
can learn about how to
Specifications
handle problems associated
Wingspan
11.8 m
with twin operations whilst
Length
8.4 m
f lying the aircraft in the
Height
2.6 m
various phases of f light, and
Max Takeoff Weight
1724 kg
with really only one other
Max Ramp Weight
1731 kg
competitor in the market
Standard Empty Weight
1191 kg
place, the 30-year-old design
Standard useful Load
540 kg
competes well now it has
Useable Fuel
409 litres
modern avionics fitted.
Cruising Speed 75%
162 KTAS
The Seminole offers
Range with 45 min res.
700 nm
the reliability of all-metal
Takeoff ground roll
1100 ft
construction that any LAME
Over 50 ft obstacle
2200 ft
around the bush can fix
Landing Roll
770 ft
as compared to composite
Over 50 ft Obstacle
1490 ft
structures, which–although
becoming increasingly more
prevalent–require a bit more
an option. More information can be
specialised skills to repair. After 30
obtained by contacting Brian Jones at
years of construction, there must be
Piper Australia Aircraft Sales on
something right in the original design.
(03) 9587 2899.
A similarly equipped 2012
Seminole with Garmin G500 will
Thanks to Andrew Johnson from
set you back between AUD$740Piper Australia Aircraft Sales, Nick
750,000 (incl. GST) based on
Harris from Moorabbin Flying
current exchange rates. If you want
Services and Paul Canavan and
to add some weight to the aircraft,
Laurie Byrnes with their help in
even air-conditioning is available as
capturing the airborne images.
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