Aircraft model
PIPER PA-44-180T
Everything here is true of every aircraft of the type, not of any one aircraft.
The Turbo Seminole: the standard four-seat training twin with turbocharged 180 hp Lycomings in place of the normally aspirated ones, a 3,925 lb maximum weight and a 20,000 ft ceiling. Piper built it for only two model years at the end of the general aviation boom and fewer than a hundred were made, which makes it much the rarest Seminole.
Turbocharging on a 180 hp engine is there for altitude rather than speed, and in a training twin it mostly buys the ability to demonstrate single-engine work somewhere the aeroplane can still climb. That is genuinely valuable in the mountain west and largely irrelevant elsewhere, which is roughly how the market values it. The cost side is the usual turbo penalty: two turbochargers, two wastegates and two exhaust systems on engines that in the naturally aspirated Seminole are among the cheapest twin engines to run. Parts for the T-model specifically are harder to come by than for the ordinary PA-44-180.
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Put PIPER PA-44-180T side by side with up to two other models.
- PIPER PA-44-180T
What it is
| Seats | 4 |
|---|---|
| Landing gear | tricycle |
| Engines | 2 |
| Engine | Lycoming TO-360-E1A6D / LTO-360-E1A6D (turbocharged, counter-rotating) |
| Horsepower | 180 hp |
| Fuel | 100LL |
| Certification basis | FAR23 |
| Production start | 1981 |
| Production end | 1982 |
| Endorsements required | complex;multi-engine |
Performance
| Cruise speed | 183 KTAS |
|---|---|
| Range | 850 nm |
| Service ceiling | 20,000 ft |
| Climb rate | 1,290 ft/min |
| Stall speed (Vso) | 56 KCAS |
| Takeoff over 50 ft | 1,500 ft |
| Landing over 50 ft | 1,400 ft |
Load and fuel
| Seats | 4 |
|---|---|
| Useful load | 1,464 lb |
| Full-fuel payload | 816 lb |
| Max takeoff weight | 3,925 lb |
| Empty weight | 2,461 lb |
| Usable fuel | 108 gal |
| Fuel burn at cruise | 20.9 gal/h |
Cost of ownership
| Price, low | $125,000 |
|---|---|
| Price, high | $190,000 |
| Prices as of | 2026 |
| Engine TBO | 2,000 h |
| Overhaul cost, low | $32,000 |
| Overhaul cost, high | $46,000 |
The fleet and its record
| Registered, all time | 84 |
|---|---|
| Active fleet | 38 |
| Median year built | 1981.0 |
| NTSB events, last 10 years | 1 |
| Fatal events, last 10 years | 0 |
| Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years | 26.32 · thin base (low)1 |
| Personal-flying events per 1,000 active | 26.32 · thin base (low)2 |
| Ownership transfers, last 24 months | 8 |
| Transfers per 100 active | 21.05 · thin base (low)3 |
| Airworthiness directives | 6 |
| Directives, last 5 years | 1 |
| Rate confidence | low |
- Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years: per 1,000 active aircraft · base 38 active.
- Personal-flying events per 1,000 active: per 1,000 active aircraft · base 38 active.
- Transfers per 100 active: per 100 active aircraft · base 38 active.
Peer scores6
| Peer class | Fixed wing multi-engine, piston, 2 engines, 3-4 seats |
|---|---|
| Accident record | —1 |
| Severity | —2 |
| Access | —3 |
| Support | 1.4 of 104 |
| Liquidity | —5 |
- Accident record: class median 7.48 · 7 models in class.
- Severity: class median 7.14.
- Access: class median 1,060.75.
- Support: class median 95.
- Liquidity: class median 20.93.
- Each of the five categories places the model within its peer class, from 0 (the worst of the class) to 10 (the best): a position among comparable models, not a grade. The overall score is the sum of the categories shown that are scored, out of 10 for each (50 when all five are); it is given only when at least 4 of the five are scored, and it can be set against another model's only when both are in the same peer class and scored on the same categories.