Piper Arrow full-stall landing - roll stability?

You never hear Beech owners comparing tricky marginal landings. ;)

I thought you had to sign the "everything is always perfect in a Beechcraft" NDA before you were allowed to take delivery of one. ;)

That guy who dented the wing on his, flying it into a tree in IMC, after losing sight of his formation wingman, broke the first rule of Beech Club.

The first rule of Beech club is... You don't talk about Beech Club. :)
 
Yeah, I dont know how hard the landing had to be all I know is the plane had log book entry's for the repairs and dents on the upper wing skins where the struts contacted. I imagine that being an Arrow the retracts are not as stout as the standard fixed gear 28s though.

No they are not as stout.

I had some wing damage "consistent with a hard landing" after my sixth or so landing with my Arrow. I did not think any of them terribly hard but hey, there was the damage and torn ribs don't lie. There was some prior damage on that wing that was repaired and a partial tear in a rib that was existing but not caught on the prebuy. There is a Piper SB No. 1161 on checking that rib for tears but the existing tear would have been hard to find if the A&P did not clean the area and do the SB; it tore more as part of "my" damage.

There is a weak point in the design of Piper retracts where the rear gear trunnion mounts to the false spar. The front mount to the main wing spar is strong but the rear is weak. That is according to Ross Sumney at Williams Airmotive, who was very helpful in discussing this issue with me although we eventually had the repair made on the field.
 
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I thought you had to sign the "everything is always perfect in a Beechcraft" NDA before you were allowed to take delivery of one. ;)

That guy who dented the wing on his, flying it into a tree in IMC, after losing sight of his formation wingman, broke the first rule of Beech Club.

The first rule of Beech club is... You don't talk about Beech Club. :)

So, how many of those guys are claiming the airplane was at fault? Please don't blame the random stupid pilot trick on the airplane. You rarely ever see anything but a good landing out of a Beech product. Walter Beech knew his craft. Even the BE 18 is perfectly behaved until you unlock the tail wheel.
 
So, how many of those guys are claiming the airplane was at fault? Please don't blame the random stupid pilot trick on the airplane. You rarely ever see anything but a good landing out of a Beech product. Walter Beech knew his craft. Even the BE 18 is perfectly behaved until you unlock the tail wheel.


Well, looking at a musketeer it would appear that there might be an exception to this.

Haven't flown them but I am sure you are correct about bonanzas and barons! Things look stout.
 
So, how many of those guys are claiming the airplane was at fault? Please don't blame the random stupid pilot trick on the airplane. You rarely ever see anything but a good landing out of a Beech product. Walter Beech knew his craft. Even the BE 18 is perfectly behaved until you unlock the tail wheel.

All I can judge is the attitude on the ground of those flying them.

If its a well-deserved attitude, because the aircraft really are that good, it's fine by me. ;)

Jesse has pointed out they will spiral pretty easily if you're inattentive, and books tell me they're a little more demanding about W&B than my slow-ass pickup truck of a Skylane. They usually get wherever we are going before I do, too.

Other than that. No experience here with anything other than their pilots. They're nice folk who never seem to have met a Bonanza they didn't like. :)

They usually have nice aviator sunglasses on, a polo shirt instead of a zoom bag, whiter teeth and fresher breath than RV pilots, too.

:stirpot: :stirpot: :stirpot: ;) :) :D
 
Thing that sold me on them was the first time I opened one up for it's annual. Everything looks different from what I'd seen done elsewhere.
 
They usually have nice aviator sunglasses on, a polo shirt instead of a zoom bag, whiter teeth and fresher breath than RV pilots, too.

:stirpot: :stirpot: :stirpot: ;) :) :D
My 69 yr old uncle has a '47 Bo. And an RV-7 he finished in '07. Wears the ratty-est white t-shirts you ever saw when we fly. Mostly 'cause it's Texas and hot as he!! 'till you get above 5K... Love the way that old plane flies tho, I learned my first 40 hours of stick time in that thing.
 
I remember when I went from the Warrior to the Cherokee 140 "Hershey Bar". I thought I was practicing for landing on an aircraft carrier for the first few landings until I learned to flying with a little more power all the way down to the flare. Now I love flying the 140 and practicing landings, especially crosswind.
 
I remember my checkout in the cherokee I flared a bit high and dropped it in. I was bracing for impact and didn't get near what I was expecting!

2nd. Did that in the archer keeping up my night currency last week, first night landing in I dunno 6, 7 months? First night landing ever in that plane. Was a little high, ran out of ground effect, thinking "uh-oh gonna feel this" thump...well that wasn't anything at all :) It lands completely different than our 172, which would have bounced and I would have went around.
 
The straight wing Arrow II (and Cherokee 140) are more forgiving being slightly fast on touchdown that the swept wing Arrow III, which will tend to float if you are a tad fast. On the flip side, the Arrow III also has less of a tendency to pancake if you come in too slow. Personally I like the flight and landing characteristics of the Arrow II better than the III.
 
The straight wing Arrow II (and Cherokee 140) are more forgiving being slightly fast on touchdown that the swept wing Arrow III, which will tend to float if you are a tad fast. On the flip side, the Arrow III also has less of a tendency to pancake if you come in too slow. Personally I like the flight and landing characteristics of the Arrow II better than the III.

Swept wing? Taper maybe? Either wing will drop in quite nicely as long as the pilot does their job...
 
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