When taking my flying lessons at Santa Maria CA airport in early 1970's the Aerostar were being built there. Liked to see them flying low down the run way with no paint during the flight testing before delivery. Just a really great thing to see. Did get my pilot license.
I owned a 1976 Aerostar 601P with the Machen Superstar 700 conversion. 350 HP per side. Flew it about 1,000 hours. It was a delight to fly, but a maintenance nightmare. I joked about it by saying I could not taxi past a mechanic without something breaking. Aerostar expert Zane Pritts was my maintenance guy, so the issues I had were not due to a mechanic unfamiliar with the airframe. However, after a number of cancelled flights due to unexpected problems, I finally got rid of it and never looked back. Moved up to flying a King Air C90A, a MUCH more reliable aircraft.
The company owns an Aerostar 601P. I am lucky enough to use it for business trips. Great and fast plane. I feel safer with all the redundancy built in.
I love the Aerostar and I owned a B55 Baron for several years. I don't know if procedures have changed much since I was flying the Baron but it would never occur to me to start either engine, right or left with a bystander standing in front of either engine. Honestly, not trying to be a jerk here but just posting for your safety. Murphy would say that you will almost never accidentally start the wrong engine but that's the point. Once is too many. Other than that, I hope the video was great. I couldn't bring myself to view it after that. My background is approximately 30 years flying light singles and twins. Commercial Multi Instrument, Single Engine Sea with Taildragger and hoping for a glider rating some day. I may be off base about this and if so, please excuse but it didn't look right to me and I left the page but then felt I would regret it if I didn't say something. Fly well and enjoy with best wishes intended.
@@AerostarPilot I would be fibbing if I told you I never did something as Pilot in Command that I was critical of myself for later on. This is one of the reasons why the Brotherhood/Sisterhood of aviation is so great. We all help each other to be better and better we become. Very Best Regards,
Amazing how well these have aged. Just an incredible aircraft. A friend of a friend owns one and I will jump at the chance to sandbag if it ever comes. I remember when the first ones turned up in San Diego. Everybody (literally) had to go take a closer look.
@@AerostarPilot thanks for the reply. I will ask him on Monday. We are working on the cross turbo shafts for the Aerostar. It will solve all the problems due to the excessive modulation by the wastegate.
It is cool to watch you film your videos but Bobby Allison the NASCAR driver had a Aerostar that had a turbo-prop STC on it and i got to go for a ride in it. That was very cool. But thats still a nice airplane.
Nice flight except that it took half the video to get off the ground and you cut away before touchdown. Other than that beautiful scenery in my favourite plane.
If ultimate speed was the goal for this plane, why didn’t he have the cowling converted to the reverse flow electric cowl flaps where the air exits out the top. I thought that was the soul purpose of of the conversion ?
You are confusing this conversion with the original Superstar conversion that installed the 350 HP TIO540J2BD engines from the Navajo series aircraft. It also utilized the single T18 Turbocharger on each engine verses the two Rajay turbos on each engine on Super 700. The J2BD utilized updraft cooling requiring a electric cowl flap on the upper cowling. Hope that helps you out.
Feels the same other than rotation seems a bit smoother on takeoff and same with the landing flair. There is a 3 kt increase in TAS in the flight levels.
This is a 601P Superstar 680. The difference between the 680 and 700 is the 680 is limited to 340 hp per side due to the long props. The 700 has the short props. Piper made 25 PA-60-700P aircraft in 1984 which there are still about 17 flying. This have counter rotating props, the TIO-540-U2A 350 HP engines. The easiest ways to tell if it is the Piper 700 is there is no pitot tube on the vertical stabilizer. It also does not have the intercooler intake under the engine nacelle. This aircraft is for sale at Aerostar Aircraft in Coeur d Alene, Idaho.
Lol... "I have no idea what to make of those gauges.... I have no idea what I'm looking at"....... Hehe.. We all know you started flying before iPads made those "gauges" obsolete, and you started flying when those "gauges" were all you had to work with...... so we all know that YOU know what those gauges do and what they're used for..... Still fun to use them too. Cross check between Foreflight and steam.
The comment about maintenance is absolutely not true with a caveat. A lot of these Aerostars have been minimally maintained. As a result there is a lot of maintenance since the old neglected stuff breaks. Treat you annuals as progressive restoration and the aircraft will treat you will.
Technically Vr is lower however it is safer to rotate at 95 kts and come off the ground at about 100 kts. Watch this video on Vmca. Really interesting from an Air Force test pilot. ruclips.net/video/Wbu6X0hSnBY/видео.html
Geez, talk about a potentially fatal chain of events. Going into a secondary stall, which can be deadly at low altitude, with too much pull back on the yoke too soon and with unequal power on the engines. Why bring the power up at such a low speed that she entered a secondary stall on attempting to level out and an engine power imbalance could happen? How does one get into a situation like this? Especially an advanced twin engine aviator and not a rookie C172 jockey? It can creep up on any pilot I suppose. I remember 22 years ago inadvertently feeding in the bottom rudder just as the nose paid off during a slow flight stall maneuver in a 1944 TF-51D Cavalier-converted World War 2 Mustang and she violently broke and entered a spin. Because of the Mustang's laminar flow wings she was placarded against spins and especially at low altitude. For a moment I was scared absolutely to death and put my right hand on the canopy release handle. But she quickly recovered with forward stick, opposite rudder and NO throttle input. Thank God there was no secondary spin as I believe if you have any excess altitude to play with then get a large margin of speed before levelling off. Opening the throttle too soon on a 1600 HP Mustang could also induce a spin just from engine torque alone. But following that I really haven't been terribly interested in advanced stall maneuvers in complex aircraft where an inadvertent wrong input could be fatal. Interesting that I tried a stall in an Air Canada Airbus A320 CAE built Level D full flight simulator at their pilot training center at the Toronto International Airport. The instructor originally said no because a stall wasn't planned for and he did not want to get into trouble by deviating from the planned maneuvers. But I convinced him to let me try and voila, try as I might she absolutely would not stall with her stick shaker, auto thrust and auto pilot snapping on. This being the case I wonder how airline pilots learn stall recovery while obtaining a type rating?
What a damn waste to have a piston engine in this thing, I love to see PT-6s on the wings and see what it will do and a couple of hard points for extra fuel tanks. I know there is one pure jet version that flown.
I would also say with the available fuel on board you would not go very far! Much like the Lear Jet 23, 24, 25 you would be fuel critical at the second engine start. As a low time Lear driver with only 5000 hours in the early Lears I know! 😁🛫
Technically this is a Superstar 680 since it has the long props (78"). By going to the shorter 72" props and the additional inch of manifold pressure (41-41) you will gain the extra 10 hp per side. You can tell the short vs long, the short props are square tipped vs the long with the round tips. The short props are much quieter as well.
Hhmm… the fastest Aerostar? I don’t think so. The Aerostar Jet 🛩 is the fastest Aerostar. Very interesting concept, to remove the old engines into modern jet engines. What do you as Mr. Aerostar think about the Jet? Did you see it or fly it already? I can’t remember on any Jet reviews from you. What happened to the Aerostar Jet? Is it still there? Might be a good idea to make some content about this. 😀🤔👏
He has a Video flying the jet Aerostar which is A prototype 1 of 1 built, Hence it's in the name Jet Aerostar, so this one being piston engine is indeed the fastest piston light twin Aerostar. Nice attempt at gate keeping something you have lit knowledge about though.
When taking my flying lessons at Santa Maria CA airport in early 1970's the Aerostar were being built there. Liked to see them flying low down the run way with no paint during the flight testing before delivery. Just a really great thing to see. Did get my pilot license.
I owned a 1976 Aerostar 601P with the Machen Superstar 700 conversion. 350 HP per side. Flew it about 1,000 hours. It was a delight to fly, but a maintenance nightmare. I joked about it by saying I could not taxi past a mechanic without something breaking. Aerostar expert Zane Pritts was my maintenance guy, so the issues I had were not due to a mechanic unfamiliar with the airframe. However, after a number of cancelled flights due to unexpected problems, I finally got rid of it and never looked back. Moved up to flying a King Air C90A, a MUCH more reliable aircraft.
King Air=The best plane made....
What a great airplane. I have just under 1000 hours in the Aerostar. Flew them in all kinds of weather, often alone, often at night.
Check hauler I’ll bet.
I just love this. The passion for aviation just flows out of this video. Great job!
Thank you for sharing your passion of flying...
Slicked that landing in, could not tell when
Wheels touched.
The company owns an Aerostar 601P. I am lucky enough to use it for business trips. Great and fast plane. I feel safer with all the redundancy built in.
I was based at KCOE for a few years. Love living there. Check out Libby, MT...lovely place to go by the Cabinet mountains.
Very enjoyable flight. Thanks for taking us along. Great stuff.
I love the Aerostar and I owned a B55 Baron for several years. I don't know if procedures have changed much since I was flying the Baron but it would never occur to me to start either engine, right or left with a bystander standing in front of either engine. Honestly, not trying to be a jerk here but just posting for your safety. Murphy would say that you will almost never accidentally start the wrong engine but that's the point. Once is too many. Other than that, I hope the video was great. I couldn't bring myself to view it after that. My background is approximately 30 years flying light singles and twins. Commercial Multi Instrument, Single Engine Sea with Taildragger and hoping for a glider rating some day. I may be off base about this and if so, please excuse but it didn't look right to me and I left the page but then felt I would regret it if I didn't say something. Fly well and enjoy with best wishes intended.
Not off base at all. Very good observation. Never done that before and never will do it again.
@@AerostarPilot I would be fibbing if I told you I never did something as Pilot in Command that I was critical of myself for later on. This is one of the reasons why the Brotherhood/Sisterhood of aviation is so great. We all help each other to be better and better we become. Very Best Regards,
@@BruceTGriffiths So true Bruce. One of great things about talking about mistakes is that others can learn from our mistakes.
Yes I agree I thought that was your airplane. You own the “king” of the skies in that Aerostar. I bet it rolls really nice !!
Got a glimpse of this great airplane in the hangar at COE. The design seems ahead of it's time.
This plane is as hot as a June Bride on a feather bed. You NEVER EVER want to get behind this bird…
Wow that radar monochrome radar! Brings back memories! 😁🛫
I really enjoyed this video. Especially the preflight information and the run through to what your thinking prior to liftoff.
Amazing how well these have aged. Just an incredible aircraft. A friend of a friend owns one and I will jump at the chance to sandbag if it ever comes. I remember when the first ones turned up in San Diego. Everybody (literally) had to go take a closer look.
They still turn heads at airports. There are the same number of C421's still flying and they don't garner the same attention.
nice flight .. very sweet plane
I grew up flying steam gauges …and my last plane had G1000… I am happy with either
wicked plane.
I have a 601 that I converted to an airbnb sleeping quarters.
Still have some parts if you need anything.
Send me some pictures, I would love to see that.
Hey Eric;
Roger Smart in Athens Ga. You have one of the nicest Aerostars I have ever seen.
Mine is N11111, 21D is nice looking but I think N11111 is better looking. Thanks for the comments.
Nice flyin! I love it!
In addition…. Liked the “Scrolling” mounted Checklist. 😂. QUESTION❓. What is the White Wheel to the right of the mixture controls. Trim of some sort?
Could be a mech. Calculator like Aristo Aviat 615 or the like - Eric please correct me if I am wrong.😉
It is a calculator! Its a USAF MB-2A. public.beuth-hochschule.de/hamann/sliderules/MB-2A.html
@@AerostarPilot please check out Marsh Brothers Aviation. We make lots of high-performance parts for Piper Aerostar
@@JuanRivera-wg8iv I know. I have a number of them on my plane. Ask Sandy if he would like to be a sponsor :)
@@AerostarPilot thanks for the reply. I will ask him on Monday. We are working on the cross turbo shafts for the Aerostar. It will solve all the problems due to the excessive modulation by the wastegate.
Wow Sir!😇 🙏 would love to next 💺
Great to see you hand flying the aircraft in lieu of using the autopilot to do all of the work.
It is cool to watch you film your videos but Bobby Allison the NASCAR driver had a Aerostar that had a turbo-prop STC on it and i got to go for a ride in it. That was very cool. But thats still a nice airplane.
The super 700 is faster than Bobby’s.
Bobby had turbo prop engines not turbo charged turbo prop. You know a jet engine with props on it. His airplane would cruise at around 300 knt
Wanted to check out a Aerostar, then found you coming to MY neck of the woods! Cool! * Subscribe *
So if this particular aircraft holds the Aerostar speed record... How fast did it go? 285 KTAS?
The information is in the video description.
Two world speed records:
1000k closed course at 259 kts
2000k closed course at 277 kts
@@AerostarPilotah thank you for the info.
Wow, you got a lot of work left. The plane was working, and now it's all parts. But, a good job, you'll get it down, no worries.
Not sure what this Comment is about
Nice flight except that it took half the video to get off the ground and you cut away before touchdown. Other than that beautiful scenery in my favourite plane.
Thanks for the tip
If I buy the Aerostar 700 ! I can replacement the engine tranform Subaru 6 cylinder engine or not, please let me know.😊
No!
If ultimate speed was the goal for this plane, why didn’t he have the cowling converted to the reverse flow electric cowl flaps where the air exits out the top. I thought that was the soul purpose of of the conversion ?
You are confusing this conversion with the original Superstar conversion that installed the 350 HP TIO540J2BD engines from the Navajo series aircraft. It also utilized the single T18 Turbocharger on each engine verses the two Rajay turbos on each engine on Super 700. The J2BD utilized updraft cooling requiring a electric cowl flap on the upper cowling. Hope that helps you out.
Hey "Whole Lota Ones;" how does the winglet bird handle compared to standard?
Feels the same other than rotation seems a bit smoother on takeoff and same with the landing flair. There is a 3 kt increase in TAS in the flight levels.
Please I would like to know if it's a Piper Aerostar 601 or a 700.. Thank you, sir
This is a 601P Superstar 680. The difference between the 680 and 700 is the 680 is limited to 340 hp per side due to the long props. The 700 has the short props. Piper made 25 PA-60-700P aircraft in 1984 which there are still about 17 flying. This have counter rotating props, the TIO-540-U2A 350 HP engines. The easiest ways to tell if it is the Piper 700 is there is no pitot tube on the vertical stabilizer. It also does not have the intercooler intake under the engine nacelle. This aircraft is for sale at Aerostar Aircraft in Coeur d Alene, Idaho.
Lol... "I have no idea what to make of those gauges.... I have no idea what I'm looking at"....... Hehe.. We all know you started flying before iPads made those "gauges" obsolete, and you started flying when those "gauges" were all you had to work with...... so we all know that YOU know what those gauges do and what they're used for..... Still fun to use them too. Cross check between Foreflight and steam.
Bobby Unser and his Piper Aerostar
'79 Inter cooled Machen Modified 601 P Aerostar FAST...EST
1 hr/flight=1hr./maintenance
The comment about maintenance is absolutely not true with a caveat. A lot of these Aerostars have been minimally maintained. As a result there is a lot of maintenance since the old neglected stuff breaks. Treat you annuals as progressive restoration and the aircraft will treat you will.
Is Vr about 100kts
Technically Vr is lower however it is safer to rotate at 95 kts and come off the ground at about 100 kts. Watch this video on Vmca. Really interesting from an Air Force test pilot. ruclips.net/video/Wbu6X0hSnBY/видео.html
@@AerostarPilot What's the blue line speed in that plane?
@@dieselyeti 117 kts.
Geez, talk about a potentially fatal chain of events. Going into a secondary stall, which can be deadly at low altitude, with too much pull back on the yoke too soon and with unequal power on the engines. Why bring the power up at such a low speed that she entered a secondary stall on attempting to level out and an engine power imbalance could happen? How does one get into a situation like this? Especially an advanced twin engine aviator and not a rookie C172 jockey? It can creep up on any pilot I suppose. I remember 22 years ago inadvertently feeding in the bottom rudder just as the nose paid off during a slow flight stall maneuver in a 1944 TF-51D Cavalier-converted World War 2 Mustang and she violently broke and entered a spin. Because of the Mustang's laminar flow wings she was placarded against spins and especially at low altitude. For a moment I was scared absolutely to death and put my right hand on the canopy release handle. But she quickly recovered with forward stick, opposite rudder and NO throttle input. Thank God there was no secondary spin as I believe if you have any excess altitude to play with then get a large margin of speed before levelling off. Opening the throttle too soon on a 1600 HP Mustang could also induce a spin just from engine torque alone. But following that I really haven't been terribly interested in advanced stall maneuvers in complex aircraft where an inadvertent wrong input could be fatal. Interesting that I tried a stall in an Air Canada Airbus A320 CAE built Level D full flight simulator at their pilot training center at the Toronto International Airport. The instructor originally said no because a stall wasn't planned for and he did not want to get into trouble by deviating from the planned maneuvers. But I convinced him to let me try and voila, try as I might she absolutely would not stall with her stick shaker, auto thrust and auto pilot snapping on. This being the case I wonder how airline pilots learn stall recovery while obtaining a type rating?
I wasn’t n the plane. Glad I was not. It would have scared the crap out of me. Actually it I was, it would not have happened.
What a damn waste to have a piston engine in this thing, I love to see PT-6s on the wings and see what it will do and a couple of hard points for extra fuel tanks. I know there is one pure jet version that flown.
I am sure for the right price Aerostar could be purchased by an entity that had the finances to take the design to the next level.
I've had this idea for years but think the Rolls 250-B17 might be a better choice. 300ish kts and wouldn't be a fuel hog like the Pratts.
I would also say with the available fuel on board you would not go very far! Much like the Lear Jet 23, 24, 25 you would be fuel critical at the second engine start. As a low time Lear driver with only 5000 hours in the early Lears I know! 😁🛫
Piston engine are a nightmare…
There will come a day when a reasonably priced more reliable turbine engine will be available to replace our old VW engines.
Is this a 700 ???
Technically this is a Superstar 680 since it has the long props (78"). By going to the shorter 72" props and the additional inch of manifold pressure (41-41) you will gain the extra 10 hp per side. You can tell the short vs long, the short props are square tipped vs the long with the round tips. The short props are much quieter as well.
Incorrect clearance readback, controller didn't catch
Yep. I saw that right after I read it back. Happens more than we think on both sides. We keep striving for perfection and never seem to reach it.
@@AerostarPilot we're all human! I thought I heard 22 but went back in case I heard it wrong
I read it back as 200.
Noticed that, had to rewind to be sure. Great video.
Hhmm… the fastest Aerostar? I don’t think so. The Aerostar Jet 🛩 is the fastest Aerostar. Very interesting concept, to remove the old engines into modern jet engines. What do you as Mr. Aerostar think about the Jet? Did you see it or fly it already? I can’t remember on any Jet reviews from you. What happened to the Aerostar Jet? Is it still there? Might be a good idea to make some content about this. 😀🤔👏
He has a Video flying the jet Aerostar which is A prototype 1 of 1 built, Hence it's in the name Jet Aerostar, so this one being piston engine is indeed the fastest piston light twin Aerostar. Nice attempt at gate keeping something you have lit knowledge about though.
@@kvnkaveman thata boy