Page 7 - Volume 16 Number 10

ca Vepackage OCTOBER 2012by LeRoy CookPiper Aircraft has been building multi-engine air- planes for almost 60 years, persevering in both boom times and reversals. Through it all, Piper maintained at least some level of production and it continues to offer that combination of capability and value that’s always been the Piper attribute.When the Piper Seneca first appeared 40 years ago, it had a lot to offer; the wide interior and dual entry doors were the basis for growth, and grow it did, with the addition of turbocharging, club seating, payload increases and instrumentation only dreamt of when the PA-34 was initially conceived. Today’s Seneca V is a mature product that needs a fresh look at its position in the marketplace. This airplane, as it turns out, can do a lot of jobs often needlessly assigned to bigger aircraft.To reinforce awareness of the Seneca V’s prowess, Piper made a nation-wide tour with the aircraft in late summer 2012. Kansas City Aviation Center, a long-established Piper dealership headquartered at suburban Johnson County Executive airport (KOJC) outside Kansas City, gave us an opportunity to meet up with the airplane during its sales swing. KCAC has been a fixture of midwestern aviation for 46 years, and a Piper distributor from the very start.We met Seneca demo pilot Keith Vasey, Kansas City Aviation Center’s Regional Director of aircraft sales, at his office in Olathe, Kansas, where he was eager to show us around N134PA, a factory-fresh Seneca V with all the latest advancements. We’d ignored the PA-34-220T for a dozen years, and needed his input to catch up on how the aircraft had evolved. Parked with the jets and turboprops, the Seneca V fits right in as a handy charter and business aircraft.Vasey sees the aircraft as a perfect choice for small corporations, and for individuals who are ready to move up to the safety and capability afforded by an extra engine. The Seneca V’s advantages over its competition are a 16,500- foot single-engine ceiling, with no critical engine thanks to its counter-rotating powerplants (the right engine turnsTWIN & TURBINE • 5