Piper Colt PA22 CF-NDS

I flew my Colt for work at Transport Canada quite often in the early 1990s, even landing at Pearson Int’l (CYYZ) while working there. Longer trips were to Halifax (for work) and Washington DC, (for pleasure).

Piper Colts were Piper’s answer to the Cessna 150. The Colt is better in almost every regard. It carried over 400 pounds of people and baggage for almost 6 hours at 100 miles per hour. You had to use the rudder to counter adverse yaw, otherwise the nose was all over the place. It lacked flaps, so one needed to learn to slip off excess altitude. If it was not trimmed properly landing flare was more difficult. It was more comfortable than the 150’s floor like seating position. It had a steel tube structure covered with fabric. Hence it was easy to repair. Its main down fall was its tube and fabric construction. Modern Dacron fabrics last forever, but the metal structure beneath does not.