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New here, new Arrow III owner, first plane

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Joined
Jun 13, 2022
Messages
16
Reaction score
10
Location
Minnesota
Hi All,

I wanted to introduce myself here. This seems to be the place to be for Piper owners!

I'm a bucket lister Private Pilot, age 47, with just 150 hours so far. Flying is something I'd always wanted to do, and finally got my ticket this past year at about 65 hours. Once I get more experience under my belt, I do plan to get my instrument rating, probably next year. I hangar/base at KOWA in Minnesota, live in the south metro of the Twin Cities MSP.

I trained primarily in an Archer II, but I looked to the Arrow as my first plane because of the crazy high prices of used Archers because of the strong flight school demand. The Arrow was the logical choice to me, more plane for less than half the money! I specifically sought out an Arrow III because of the taper wing and 72 gal usable fuel capacity. My PA28R-201 is a 1977 Arrow III. 9000 hours airframe time, 300 hours on fresh engine. Complete logs since new, no damage history. This was not a trainer, it flew Part 135 bank freight for many years (mostly highway miles!). So the higher airframe hours total doesn't really bother me too much, and it checked out 100% with the pre-buy. All ADs complied with including the wing spars. Interior is original (5 out of 10), paint is original (7 out of 10). I plan to remedy both this winter, a new Airtex interior self-install, and change the green/gold stripe scheme to red/blue. The rest of it is white and still looks good. It has a G430W, working auto pilot, and a GTX 345 (no need for my Sentry anymore!). Dual nav/coms, IFR capable. I fly with an Ipad with suction cup mount, the 430 is just for backup.

It flies well, and is surprisingly more fuel efficient than the Archer, and at much better speeds. It was a bit of an adjustment learning to land it well, as compared with the Archer, but otherwise it is very similar and familiar. I love it so far!

I look forward to learning a lot here, as well as contributing whenever possible!
 

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