Piper Warrior Buyer's Guide: PA-28-151 vs Warrior II and III as a First Airplane

The Warrior is the tapered-wing, fixed-gear, fixed-pitch member of Piper's PA-28 family. It is cheap to insure and simple to maintain, and it's everywhere, which is exactly why so many used examples have spent years on a flight line. This guide covers which Warrior to buy, how to read a trainer's history and what the loan looks like.

Who should buy a Warrior, and who should keep looking?

The Warrior suits pilots whose flying is local, training-heavy or built around one passenger. Instrument students like its stable, predictable handling. Two- and three-way partnerships like its low fixed costs. Low-time owners like the fact that insurers see thousands of them and price them accordingly.

It's the wrong airplane if:

• You routinely fly four adults. Full fuel plus four adults usually exceeds gross weight. A Piper Archer (180 hp) or Cherokee 180 gives you more load and climb for a modest price step.
• You're based high or hot. A 160-hp fixed-pitch airplane at gross weight in summer at a 5,000-ft field is a slow climber. Density altitude, not cruise speed, is the Warrior's real limit.
• You want to travel fast. Expect roughly 110–120 knots true. If you'll soon want a complex endorsement anyway, compare a Piper Arrow.
• You prefer a high wing for sightseeing, shade or easier cabin entry. Look at the Cessna 172, whose used prices overlap the Warrior's.

Which Warrior: PA-28-151, Warrior II, Cadet or Warrior III?

Variant data: Wikipedia, Piper PA-28 Cherokee. Confirm the gross weight for any specific serial number in its POH.

Decision rule: if you'll carry more than one passenger regularly, pay for a 160-hp airplane with the 2,440 lb gross weight. If you'll fly solo or with one passenger and want the lowest entry price, a well-documented 151 is a legitimate choice.

The wing spar AD: why trainer history changes the price

After a 2018 wing separation on a training Arrow, the FAA issued AD 2020-26-16 (effective February 16, 2021). It covers the PA-28-151 and -161 along with other PA-28 and PA-32 models. It requires an eddy current inspection of the lower main wing spar bolt holes once an airplane reaches 5,000 factored service hours.

The AD's formula is (T − N × 100) ÷ 17 + N × 100, where T is total time in service and N is the number of 100-hour inspections. The 100-hour inspections stand in for training or rental use, and those hours count 17 times as much as private hours.

• Ex-trainer: 9,000 hours total with 60 recorded 100-hour inspections works out to about 6,176 factored hours, so the inspection is due.
• Privately flown airplane: 4,500 hours with no 100-hour inspections works out to about 265 factored hours, far from the threshold.

The FAA's own cost estimates in the AD were about $600 for a contracted eddy current inspection plus $360 for access and restoration, and $12,340 per spar if replacement is needed. Ask the seller for the factored-hours calculation and any inspection result in writing. If the airplane needs a spar, that belongs in the price.

What else to inspect on a used Warrior

Use a mechanic who works on PA-28s, and add these items to the general pre-buy inspection checklist:

• Nose gear, firewall and engine mount. Students land flat. Look for firewall wrinkles, cracked mounts, a worn shimmy damper and a sagging oleo strut.
• Stabilator. Check hinge bearings, attach fittings, balance tube and trim mechanism for play and corrosion.
• Fuel tanks. The tanks form the inboard wing leading edges and are sealed aluminum. Look for blue stains at seams, and sender accuracy.
• Corrosion. Check the wing spars, rear spar attach points and the battery box area, especially on coastal airplanes.
• Engine. Compare time since overhaul (SMOH) with Lycoming's published 2,000-hour TBO for the O-320, and weigh calendar time as well. An airplane that sat for years may have cam and lifter corrosion even with low hours. Borescope the cylinders and review oil analysis. See SMOH vs TBO.
• Records. Damage history, Form 337s, AD compliance and gaps in the logs. A trainer with missing 100-hour entries makes the spar math harder. See how to read aircraft logbooks.
• Panel. Many ex-trainers have ADS-B Out and little else. Price a WAAS GPS or autopilot now if you want them; see avionics financing.

How much does a Warrior cost to buy and finance?

AeroGurus listed 38 Warriors in September 2026 at asking prices from about $34,000 to $155,000, with a median near $99,000. These are typical asking prices seen in 2025–2026 listings, not sale prices, so verify any value with Vref or Aircraft Bluebook. The examples below use three hypothetical prices across that range.

Warriors are post-1960 singles, so AOPA's lenders ask for a 15% minimum down payment, and 20-year terms apply only to loans of $75,000 or more. As of September 2026, piston loan rates generally start around 7% for well-qualified borrowers (FLYING Finance lists 7.01% for certified pistons) and run to roughly 10%.

The Warrior II loan sits just above the $75,000 line. That matters because a buyer who puts 25% down on the same airplane drops below it and may be limited to 15 years. Here is that loan across the realistic rate range:

Loan amount $84,150. Principal and interest only; excludes insurance, taxes and fees. Illustrative, not a quote.

Lenders generally look for a 680+ credit score, with the best pricing from about 720–730+. See aircraft loan requirements for the full document list.

What does insurance look like for a first Warrior?

Insurers treat the Warrior like other fixed-gear four-seat trainers, which is about as favorable as piston insurance gets. There's no verified Warrior-specific benchmark, but BWI's March 2026 Cessna 172 figures are a close proxy (BWI):

• $1,200–$2,500 a year for a private owner with 250+ hours and an $80,000–$150,000 hull.
• $2,000–$3,500+ for a pilot under 150 hours with a $100,000 hull.
• $4,000–$8,000+ if you'll leaseback it to a school or rent it out.

Your lender will require hull coverage for at least the loan amount, with the lender named as loss payee. Get the quote before you sign a purchase agreement. See aircraft loan insurance requirements.

First-year ownership notes

• Keep a squawk reserve. Even a clean pre-buy misses things. First-year Warrior owners commonly spend on a vacuum pump, a starter or alternator, tires and brakes, and sealant touch-ups within the first annual.
• Make the first annual thorough. Use a shop you'll stay with. Have it build a baseline: compressions, borescope images, oil analysis and an AD list for the serial number.
• Fuel. At the September 2026 AirNav national average of $7.24/gal, an assumed 8 gph is about $57.92 per flight hour.
• Consider a partner. Splitting fixed costs is the Warrior's classic ownership model. See financing a partnership share.

The complete annual budget, with fixed costs, reserves and cost per hour at different utilization levels, is on the Piper PA-28 Warrior cost of ownership page.

How this guide differs from related pages

This page is about the buying decision: which Warrior, what to inspect and how the loan works. Specifications and data-generated payment examples are on the Piper PA-28-161 Warrior model page. Annual operating costs are on the Warrior cost of ownership page. If you're weighing more power, compare the Cherokee 180 and Archer guides. For buying steps that apply to any airplane, see buying your first airplane.