tawood
En-Route
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 Insurance "blue book" is ridiculously outdated, saying that the most expensive Arrows should be less than $45k (Yeah, right!).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:
--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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