The gear extension limit is close to the cruise speed (which really says more about the cruise speed than it does about the gear), so descents aren’t the problem they are in slick airplanes like the Mooney. Piper folded the gear on its Cherokee 180 and in 1967 unveiled the first Arrow. The Arrow has undergone a long evolution, but there have been four improvements that have had the most significant effects on performance, utility and comfort: The introduction of a 200-horsepower model in 1969, a five inch stretch of the fuselage in 1972, 77 gallon tanks in 1977 and the introduction of a turbocharged model that year. Its fuselage was stretched five inches, providing more rear-seat room; its wingspan increased 26 inches by widening the Hershey Bar design and the stabilator’s span increased. The 1967 Piper PA-28R-180 Arrow was fitted with a fuel-injected LycomingIO-360-B1E engine, retractable gear, and a variable-pitch constant speed propeller. In all my 14 years of ownership, I have never had a retractable gear maintenance issue. The 200’s TBO is now also 2000 hours. The next year marked the development of a redesigned camshaft and another TBO increase—to 1600 hours. When the user loads an aircraft for the first time, they are always planted right where the magic happens… in the cockpit. Piper Arrow CHECKLIST Revision 1.5 Bountiful Flight, LLC Piper Arrow II Aircraft Checklist PA-28R-200 This is an abbreviated checklist. While the market has changed, the Arrow soldiers on. Flight schools have long sworn by them as relatively economical complex trainers, and owners report happy relationships with their combination of useful load and range. The Piper Arrow III is powered by a Lycoming IO-360-C1C6 engine and has a range of 695 miles. Later, starting with the 1984 models, additional cooling louvers appeared on the bottom of the cowling, which helped … 91 or F.A.R 135. Lastly, we require our members to watch a video on turbocharged engine operations. The majority of the checkout flight is routine. If the base model PA-28 was a trainer for new pilots, then the PA-28R was the transition for pilots to complex aircraft. That’s no accident, of course: Offering a full line of airplanes was the basic marketing model for all of the major manufacturers in the 1960s and 1970s. The airplane is approved for day and night VFR/IFR operations when equipped in accordance with F.A.R. Photo: Mike Berry Alas, the engine wasn’t as bulletproof as Continental intended or Piper hoped. Egress is not the best, we don’t like the single cabin door, especially when compared to the double-doored Cardinal RG, Cutlass RG, Commander 112 and the Beech Sierra. A year later—then owned by M. Stuart Millar—the company withdrew its deactivation order, provided that pilots “take the necessary actions to assure that any pilot flying these aircraft are fully advised of the system and its proper operation.” In part, Piper was responding to the complaints of irate owners who believed the system worked often enough to be desirable. The average equipped prices of these airplanes when new in 1977 (the first year all of them were offered at once) ran as follows: Arrow III: $50,320; Cessna Cardinal RG: $50,095; Rockwell Commander 112: $61,295; Beech Sierra: $53,594 and Mooney 201: $57,420. Turboplus offer intercoolers. When Piper hung a 200-HP turbocharged Continental TSIO-360-F onto an Arrow III in 1977, the combination looked like a perfect match: the world’s premier economy retractable single and a powerplant promising high-tech performance at low-tech prices. Piper Arrow III Aircraft Information. It all began in 1960 with the Piper PA-28 Cherokee. Soon, however, the engine began earning a reputation as tricky to operate and prone to self destruction. Advertisement 1982 Piper T-Tail Turbo Arrow Base/used Price: $67,000-$93,000 Engine make/model: Cont. However, once slowed, the aircraft has the sink rate of a typical Arrow. One of the reasons for the Turbo Arrow’s recent reliability may be the aftermarket mods available. The Arrow may be a good choice for a pilot with little complex aircraft experience or one who does not fly often. The -C1C engine was more costly in other ways, too—it had a 1200-hour TBO, compared to 2000 for the 180. Little maintenance is typically required between annuals. For the extra few knots a Mooney might deliver, the Arrow is a more comfortable and pleasurable plane to fly. Others, who don’t try to fly the Arrow IV like the earlier models, look more favorably upon the T-tail. We will do slow flight, approach and departure stalls and recoveries, simulated engine failure and a handful of touch-and-goes. A variety of aerodynamic mods are available for PA-28s, from the usual flap and gap seals (Knots-2U, www.knots2u.com) to shoulder harnesses (AeroParadise, www.aeroparadisellc.com) to the high-spiff-factor LoPresti (www.speedmods.com) cowling. Cruise speeds range from 130 (180-HP) to 143 knots (normally aspirated 200-HP T-tail) and as high as 170 knots for a turbocharged version flown in the teens. An electric fuel pump serves as a back-up feature. I purchased my 1976 Arrow II back in 1998 for $62,000—in the good old days of ever-increasing resale values—after earning my instrument rating. And a Mooney 201, on the same fuel, goes the fastest. Again, as the gear is retracted, keep an eye on the manifold pressure. Sorting through the plethora of changes in the Arrow models to find the one with the best combination of performance, comfort and price is enough to confuse the most determined shopper. In the mid-1970s, Piper revamped its line of metal singles (leaving the Super Cub alone), starting with the bottom of the PA-28 line. The result was a handful on the runway: The T-tail’s tendency to encourage overrotation, coupled with the engine’s need for attention on the takeoff roll meant a busy time, especially on high-elevation fields. In 1979, Piper made a controversial design decision, opting to follow the T-tail design fad. The throttle is very touchy on the Turbo Arrow, and what you may think is a minimal change will actually be a huge change. Regardless, some who have flown both report the T-tailed version also demands more attention to pitch trim when changing airspeeds. Current production numbers are over 32,000. Please login below for an enhanced experience. It didn’t help much when, in 1979, Piper combined its T-tail airframe with the turbo’d engine, even if the powerplant got a different suffix and much-needed TBO extension (from 1400 to 1800 hours). Stalls are a non-event. While the tapered wing Arrow III is generally considered more desirable, having flown both I have noted little difference in performance or handling. More on the Arrow’s gear system in a moment. Most explanatory items, notes, cautions, and warnings have been omitted for brevity. Meanwhile, in an effort to prevent bootstrapping on the Turbo Arrow and other aircraft with the TSIO-360 engine, Merlyn Products (www.merlynproducts.com) has taken an even more dramatic step and come up with an automatic upper deck controller that looks like the answer to a prayer for Turbo Arrow owners. The 200-HP Piper Arrow was sufficiently more popular than the 180 that the latter was dropped in 1971. The Arrow’s interior is quite comfortable. After years of renting various Cessnas, Pipers, Beachcraft and even a Grumman or two, it was time to own something. Photo: James Lawrence Photo 05: The Piper Arrow III panel. 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