PIPER PA-44-180

The Seminole is the standard multi-engine trainer of the American flight-training industry. It is a four-seat light twin with two 180 hp Lycomings turning in opposite directions, which removes the critical engine and makes engine-failure training more predictable. Almost every one in service belongs to a flight school or a university aviation programme, and that is what it was designed for. It has been built in three runs — 1979 to 1982, 1989 to 1990, and continuously since 1995 — and the airframe and engines are essentially the same across all of them. What changed is the panel. Everything before the mid-2000s has conventional instruments. Avidyne Entegra glass was offered on the Seminole from 2006; the Garmin G500 was the fitted panel by 2012, and from the 2013 model year Piper replaced it with the Garmin G1000; the G1000 NXi has been standard since 2017. So a 2000 Seminole has round dials, a 2006 to 2011 one may have round dials or Entegra depending on how it was ordered, a 2012 has a G500, and a 2014 or later has the G1000.

As a private aeroplane it makes little sense: 162 knots and four seats for the running costs of two engines, two propellers and a light-twin annual. As a trainer it is close to ideal — docile, predictable, cheap by twin standards to operate on 180 hp carburetted Lycomings, and forgiving enough to demonstrate asymmetric flight safely. Single-engine climb is modest, which is honest for the class and part of the lesson. At 180 hp a side no high-performance endorsement is required, but a multi-engine rating and a complex endorsement are. Used prices are held up by continuous training demand rather than by private buyers.