Comanche 32 Papa - N9032P - Page 1.

This page is about the 1966 Piper Comanche B Model that inspired me to build two Radio Controlled models of this airplane. It was owned by my friend Reid Anderson who lived in Cynthiana, Kentucky in the 1970's and 1980's.  I photographed his airplane with my Pentax K-1000 35 mm film camera.  The images in these web pages are scanned from those photos.

This image shows Reid standing by the airplane in front of his hangar.

Here is a wide shot showing the full 36 feet of wing span of the Comanche B.  The airport cat walked across in front on the airplane when I snapped this image.  I never noticed it there in all the times I have looked at these pictures.  I found it as I was preparing this image for my web site.

The Comanche sits on a concrete slab that was poured with plank embedded to create the nose wheel parking spot in the hangar.  As you can see, the plank was removed to leave this customized concrete slab.

This image of the tail clearly shows the emergency locator transmitter antenna and Piper name on the fairing for the vertical stabilizer.

The RC model shown below was the first one I built and flew for two years.

Omar Lucas was the A&P aircraft mechanic at the Cynthiana Airport when I was taking these photos.  He has a sense of humor about his tools.

Reid is proud to show his airplane for this photo session.  He pulled it out in the sunlight for better photos.

Here is the right side view of the real airplane parked in front of the hangar.

This is the Lycoming IO-360 fuel-injected 260 HP engine that powers this sleek four-seat airplane.

Here is the view of the other side of the engine cowl.

A full instrument panel inside requires a number of antennas on the underside of the fuselage.

The cowl has plenty of air intake capability to keep the six-cylinder Lycoming engine cool.  The dark oval below the prop is the air intake for the fuel injection system.

The retractable nose wheel and gear door are featured in this photo.  One of the dual exhausts is clearly visible.  I made sure that my RC models have the dual exhaust pipes.