mandm
En-Route
Hi there, I’m a new pilot, instrument rated approx 150 hours during the past 18 months. I’m excited to be in contract for a Piper Arrow that looks beautiful currently having a couple things addressed in a prebuy. I train mostly in a C172 with 20+ Hrs complex. My goal is to travel around the country to visit new places (east coast and possibly down south) and this winter for snowboarding (out west). Here I want to build hours and go for my commercial and CFI ticket.
The avionics will be IFR ready but they are older (I train mostly with Garmin 650 and love that), but this plane that I found has a GNC300XL. I work on a flexible schedule and prefer to fly in calm clear weather and thought to give this a try for mostly VFR flying, mount an iPad on the panel with Foreflight and Stratus ADSB-in. Then see if I use the plane enough (and demonstrates being reliable) to consider an avionics upgrade in the future. Also since I want to start using this soon, I don’t really want to have the plane out of service for upgrades right now either.
Would like to hear your thoughts, tips and suggestions. If the setup will work as is, or if some upgrades are warranted or potentially could do a step upgrade and add on later as well. Also if any information on maintenance for the vacuum system. Some photos of the current panel now. Thanks all!
The avionics will be IFR ready but they are older (I train mostly with Garmin 650 and love that), but this plane that I found has a GNC300XL. I work on a flexible schedule and prefer to fly in calm clear weather and thought to give this a try for mostly VFR flying, mount an iPad on the panel with Foreflight and Stratus ADSB-in. Then see if I use the plane enough (and demonstrates being reliable) to consider an avionics upgrade in the future. Also since I want to start using this soon, I don’t really want to have the plane out of service for upgrades right now either.
Would like to hear your thoughts, tips and suggestions. If the setup will work as is, or if some upgrades are warranted or potentially could do a step upgrade and add on later as well. Also if any information on maintenance for the vacuum system. Some photos of the current panel now. Thanks all!