Picking up the new-to-me Arrow tonight.

tawood

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Tim
Found an Arrow that checked all the boxes, picking it up tonight. A few observations along with some comparisons with the last plane (Cherokee):

--Decent cruise speed, even beating most Arrows. This one is particularly clean and well maintained, with some performance mods, so that may help. The last owner flew often, so there was extensive verifiable Flightaware history (including many to-from back-to-back flights) to compare cruise speeds. Typically 136-138 knots.

--Insurance cost, for the first year with very little complex time, is increasing by 6x compared to the Cherokee ($450 vs $2700) Not a shock as I was expecting this, even though I have 1000 hours and IR, I only have a dozen hours complex time. This was the lowest quote, but also had higher demands for my experience (10 NEW hours with an instructor in this plane, plus 20 solo hours before passengers). Highest quote out of 6 companies: $4000!

--I like my planes pristine, and this one is very pristine, even nicer than my Cherokee was, with even lower hours (2600 TT). This plane was never a rental, and my mechanic thinks its never been kept outside. Of course, that condition comes with a price, which brings me to my next point....

--Getting insurance was, to say the least, difficult. Insurance "blue book" is ridiculously outdated, saying that the most expensive Arrows should be less than $45k (Yeah, right!). We went round and round to get a decent hull value insured.

--Plane happened to be local, which made things WAAAAAY easier. Funny story, but on the day it was scheduled at a Michigan field for the pre-purchase inspection, I walked out of work, looked up, and saw it flying back home! I am 30+ miles away from its home field, and 30+ miles away from the field where the pre-purchase was done, but apparently right inline with the two fields while at work. It made me smile that it also looked like it was flying at a pretty good clip for an Arrow.

--This is an Arrow I 200hp, which I personally preferred. Someone may come along to correct my assumption, but in looking at several Arrows of various years, the early Arrows seem to have the highest useful load. This one's useful is 1043 lbs (and it was just weighed last year after some major avionics upgrades). It "only" has the 48 gallon tanks (with tabs for 36 gallons), but I also prefer this too. My bladder doesn't need 78 gallons. And for local flights, only filling to 36 gallons means I'll be left with 827 lbs for passengers.

--FINALLY, AN AUTOPILOT! And, IFR GPS (430w) as well! My Cherokee had neither, and IFR flight over long distances was tiresome.

This thread would be useless without pics:

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Congratulations!
 
Looks nice, I hear the red ones are the fastest!
 
Good looking plane! Congrats!
 
Congratulations, that is one sweet looking bird!
 
I have fond memories of an Arrow 2 partnership. That is indeed a good useful load. You didn't get too hosed on the insurance checkout - I was 10hrs dual plus 15 solo due to no retract time (2007).
They do that because most gear up statistics - for that airplane - happen in the first 25hrso_O
 
Congrats…I miss mine…just good looking solid airplane! You will enjoy her…
 
One of the nicest I've seen. Congratulations! What is that switch on the instrument panel, top row and all the way left?
 
One of the nicest I've seen. Congratulations! What is that switch on the instrument panel, top row and all the way left?

most likely autopilot options....heading, nav, etc....
 
That's a great looking plane... Unless maybe you had a 235, it'll climb out of short/obstructed fields a lot better than the Cherokee, too. Congrats!
 
Congrats!!!

<—————- I’m a bit biased, but you got a great all-around aero-plane. The short bodies fly fast. I get 150 TAS out of mine at 7k. Good useful load and pretty comfy if your backseat passenger doesn’t have long legs. With waas gps and an AP you are gonna have some great trips.
 
Congrats on a fine looking machine!! I also have a "short body" PA 28-R200 and at my normal cruise altitude of 10 to 14k I have consistently recorded a TAS of 140 knots on 8.8 gph for the past 20 years. But I fly solo 99.99% of the time so "your mileage may vary" :). I have an STec autopilot with altitude pre-select, VS, etc. coupled with a GNS 530 and I know you will find your plane with the autopilot will make a great, and "cheap" cross country machine!
 
Thanks everyone. I spent some time last night with an instructor, starting to knock out those insurance required hours. We're going to do some hood time tonight, but last night we just flew it home and tried out everything, making sure it all worked like it should. Only thing that doesn't work is the WX-10a strike finder, which I expected as it was reported inop by the seller. I'll probably have that pulled at annual, so I'll pick up a few more lbs of useful load. I may put a JPI 450 fuel monitor in its place, as I really like those, especially if I'm flying this plane often with 36 instead of 48 gallons. I found the JPI in the Cherokee was dead nuts with fuel burn.
 
Thanks everyone. I spent some time last night with an instructor, starting to knock out those insurance required hours. We're going to do some hood time tonight, but last night we just flew it home and tried out everything, making sure it all worked like it should. Only thing that doesn't work is the WX-10a strike finder, which I expected as it was reported inop by the seller. I'll probably have that pulled at annual, so I'll pick up a few more lbs of useful load. I may put a JPI 450 fuel monitor in its place, as I really like those, especially if I'm flying this plane often with 36 instead of 48 gallons. I found the JPI in the Cherokee was dead nuts with fuel burn.

I'd see what could be done to save the strike finder. - I used my stormscope more than ADS-B weather when it comes to dodging stuff.

Like on this flight: shootTheGap.jpg


ADS-B showed heavy precip, but there was no lightning strikes happening in those two heavy cells. The lightning was all to the west. Without the scope and just the ADS-B I would have parked it, and sat all day as storms just kept popping up and blocked that path. The scope got me home.
 
ADS-B provides lightning data.
 
I'd see what could be done to save the strike finder. - I used my stormscope more than ADS-B weather when it comes to dodging stuff.

Like on this flight: View attachment 98731


ADS-B showed heavy precip, but there was no lightning strikes happening in those two heavy cells. The lightning was all to the west. Without the scope and just the ADS-B I would have parked it, and sat all day as storms just kept popping up and blocked that path. The scope got me home.
I'd like to save it, and it seems simple (basically three parts: the in dash screen, the processor box, and the antenna). But it is old, so old no one even repairs them. And I could buy any one of the three parts used on Ebay and try swapping, but I could end up buying someone elses junk so...IDK, it might be time for it to go.
 
The money you would potentially waste trying to resurrect an antique piece of electronics would be well spent on a Stratus and the tablet of your choice with Foreflight.

And congratulations on the new plane. That's really a fantastic looking Arrow.
 
The money you would potentially waste trying to resurrect an antique piece of electronics would be well spent on a Stratus and the tablet of your choice with Foreflight.

And congratulations on the new plane. That's really a fantastic looking Arrow.

hahahahahahahahahahahaha.
OK Henry Ford.
 
Wish I had a strikefinder last night picking my way around these little guys :( Actually looked worse on FF last night (areas of pink mixed in there too)

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About 40 miles from home, weather reported as heavy rain, tstorms, gusts of like 30.... so asked to divert to HWY. No problem with ATC. Got handed off and new controller asked if I wanted to try for HEF (home)... Potomac approach worked their magic and got me through and around and by the time I was near HWY, the cell over the airport had passed home base and tower cleared me visual. Greased the landing while looking at the cell off in the distance. Combination of great ATC from Potomac Approach, the fact that I wasn't in hard IMC and could see buildups, and ADS-B for strategic view of the weather got it done. I think Potomac Approach must have more detailed weather radar, because they were able to see areas of heavy precip and vector me around... But the ability to see strikes as they happened would have been good to have. And definitely wouldn't have tried to do this if I wasn't able to see the clouds the whole time.

Back to the original topic - this was in a '69 Arrow :)
 
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