Cherokee 140

 The Cherokee 140 is a four place, 150/160hp, all metal airplane. It flies around 100-110 knots and burns between 7-8 gallons per hour. This airplane is the one I grew up loving. My uncle has owned a Cherokee 140 since 1993 and he used to take me flying in it when I was young. Now that I am a pilot myself he made me a set of keys to it and I have the privilege to fly it whenever I have the need to go somewhere. As I write this article I have over 200 hours as pilot in command of the Cherokee 140 including 2 hours spent flying around today looking at the colors of the changing trees. It was this flight today that got me thinking about what the Cherokee 140 does good and what it doesn't do so well. First off it is a very reliable and proven airplane when taken care of. There aren't any recurring AD's on this airplane and as long as you take care of her she will run till you decide to turn her off. She has the very reliable O-320 in her that has a to be overhauled time of 2000 hours. When taken care of these engines have been known to run for around 2200 hours before overhauled was needed. It burns around 7-8 gallons per hour depending on power setting and altitude. In the Cherokee 140 this equates to between 100-110 knots depending on the setup on the plane and whether not waxed or not etc. This equates to around 15.5 miles per gallon for those who dont really know if 7-8 gallons a hour is good at 100-100 knots. While 15.5 miles per gallon might not sound that high you must remember that we can fly straight line distance between cities instead of taking the curving roads so lots of times it is cheaper to fly than drive in this airplane. Plus the time you save is amazing. Consider from where I live it takes around 7 hours to drive to Chicago. I have flown the Cherokee 140 to Chicago three times now and each time it was only around 2.5-3 hours total. Half the time for around the same cost. You just can't beat that. The airplane is very stable in flight. It was designed well and doesn't require much rudder input to stay coordinated. While it was designed to be a trainer it never really took foot in the flight training industry but has taken well to being a personal airplane. While it isn't the fastest airplane out there or the nicest looking it gets the job done and is reliable. It also is affordable. Right now November of 2009 you can pick up a user Cherokee 140 with a low time engine for between $25,000-30,000. A sports care is more expensive!