Hey everyone - some fascinating figures for those interested. Straight from Piper themselves - here is some evidence of the T-Tail Lance's ground-loving characteristics, speeds from the POH of a regular PA32R (straight tail Lance) compared to the PA32RT (T-Tail Lance). POH Rotate Speeds: PA32R - 52-65Kts PA32RT - 75-85Kts POH Approach Speeds: PA32R - 75Kts PA32RT - 95Kts Both POHs are available with a quick google search if anyone wants to verify.

Please keep making Piper videos. Piper is so underrated.

I have over 2000 hours flying a T tailed Lance. Used it for business and pleasure. Only did a balloon takeoff once, and that was the first one. Then a little common sense flying skills took over, and it was never a problem again. Gap seals on the elevator put the handling almost to that of a straight tail. Like the Six, this plane was a truck. If you could close the doors, it would fly. My employer asked me what plane would I recommend for the company. After I saw a Piper ad with a spinet piano in the back and the men that loaded it, I said this is the one. Home was the North East of the USA. This was a great weather platform which was tested a lot over 9 years. We carried a lot of cargo in the Lance. Having the horizontal stabilizer way up high, made it so much easier backing up to the cargo doors.

I had a 1979 T tail Lance in the 1990’s. It was my first complex airplane. As a “kid” in the 90’s, this airplane felt like an airliner compared to anything else I’d flown. I loved that plane. Mine had the avocado green velvet interior with green stripes on white. Not the prettiest color scheme. I loved the amount of room inside. It’s a wide airframe so no rubbing shoulders. That 6cyl Lycoming IO-540 was as smooth as an electric motor compared to a 4cyl. I had the two blade prop which looked like paddles. In turbulence, she would yaw back and forth like crazy. If ATC called out traffic at 12 o’clock I’d automatically be scanning from 10 to 2. One advantage of the T tail was that you could make power changes without a huge change in pitch. This was nice in IFR. With just one or two people sitting in the front seats I had to keep a 50# sand bag on the baggage compartment for CG. One thing for certain, however, you absolutely did not want to load this aircraft aft CG. Things got real ugly then. I have great memories of that airplane.

One thing you didn't mention about the T-Tail design is that it sits outside of the propeller slip stream, and so you don't get any pitching moments when you're making power changes.

The Lance is a great machine, certainly the best single GA aeroplane I ever operated.

Great video. Love all the tips and details!!!

just a quickie about stock footage. You might want to replace those Arrows with at least a Saratoga or some kind of Lance. But overall nice assessment. These were my first "complex" airplane in training back in the day. I wish they had more span on the horizontal and a cowl more like the Turbo Arrows - prolly 5 kts and better field performance. And it is known that anything over 200-210hp can benefit form the extra blade area of a 3 blade, which also help field performance - not so much in cruise. Cheers mate!

I love my Lance II! Even the T tail.

3:55 also acts as a barbeque!

Love these videos of various aircraft.

Well not only did they put the tail out the prop wash, they made it a smaller surface area than the straight tail lance/Saratoga thus limiting the effectiveness further. The t tails get a slight speed advantage to the straight tail tho with the less drag

I put an Airtex interior in my Arrow. Worth every cent. Smells like a leather jacket instead of gasoline and sweat.

Glad I found your channel. Your videos are awesome. Hopefully mine will get as good as yours.

Thanks for the video. I own a 1978 Piper Lance II and just wanted to point out a few things. Not sure if there were variations (I’m not aware of any) but my plane holds 98 gals with 94 useable…not 96. I also see TAS between 7-9k around 160-162kts…not the 145kts TAS you mentioned. Lastly, unless the rules are different in your neck of the woods (I’m in the US) but here you CANNOT simply turn the middle front facing seats around to face the rear or vice versa. Converting a forward facing middle row PA-32 regardless of the year or model requires a STC and is quite expensive. If you simply turn them around it’s illegal. The mounting points are completely different. Otherwise, good video.

At 3:40 you’ve pictured a PA28RT-201T (Turbo Arrow IV) instead of a Lance.

I loved the old Cherokee Sixes and also flew a Lance and several Saratogas but never the T-tail Lance. However, I did fly a T-tail Arrow IV and did not find the tail to be a detriment on it compared to the Arrow III.

Here's a reason - T-tails are conducive to icing in GA icing since the top of the tail may be inaccessible without a ladder (which causes dangers of its own in icy conditions). Since most GA aircraft don't fly out of international airports and thus likely the pilot has to clean the ice and snow off his flight surfaces himself, it's easy to "overlook" the elevators when cleaning the plane. Oh, and on an unrelated note: sight gauges are pretty useless once the plane starts its roll. Just sayin'....

The "T" tail gives people the "TramaHawk" queasy feeling.....

The T-tailed plane seems more complex than it needed to be since cabling for the stabilizer had to go up the tail and then they had to add external support wires on the outside which just looks ugly on a plane.

Does this aircraft have T-Tail blanking issues that transport category T-tails have? I'd be most concerned about that with this configuration.

Stall characteristics?

3:34 that a Pa28 tube arrow 4, not a lance.

Lots of time in PA-32's back in the 80's. The T tail turbo lance is without a doubt the worst handling GA airplane I have ever flown. It would be interesting to see how many had been broken on landing etc. Nice and fast but otherwise a horrible airplane.

All of the T tails are a detriment on take-off from soft grass fields.

He only good thing about any PA32 was it was roomy.

Flew one a couple times and hated it. T tail was the STUPIDEST thing Piper did to these airplanes.

T tails are the best ,,, the horizontal is out of the prop wash,,, out of the rudder shadow,, farther away from the ground effect ,,, diamond uses T tails on all their birds