Fun weekend buying an Arrow (long)

A few more details on my Arrow buying adventure this weekend. Sorry, no
pictures posted yet but I did send a couple to Jay H. for an appropriate
update (as in "Jay, could you do me a favor and replace the picture of
the rental C-172 with pictures of much nicer airplane").

Saturday: Flew commercially from Sacramento to Denver and had my first
chance to lay eyes on N2104T, located at Front Range airport. It was
everything the TAP pictures had shown, and then some (especially after
reviewing the logs). I had a chance to meet the A&P that has been doing
the maintenance and the instructor that would provide my first hour of
dual in the Arrow. Flew for 1.2 hours doing some basic maneuvers
followed by three landings. It was great. N2104T flies straight and
performed nicely given the density altitude of the Denver area. By this
time, I'm well pleased and really thinking we've scored the nicest '71
Arrow on the planet.

Sunday: Early start, I meet with the A&P to review the logs. Logs are
very clean. The plane just came out of annual last week and has a new
fuel pump and forward spinner bracket. Reviewed the logs which answered
most of the questions I'd been wondering about. Had a chance to poke
around the plane a bit more as we pulled the cowl and some inspection
panels. Everything is nice and clean. No leaks anywhere, Tail cone
area looks immaculate, the A&P answers all my questions and fills in a
lot of information from his own history with the plane. After a few
hours of this, we're finished and I have a chance to sit down with the
logs and crawl around the plane by myself as I'm waiting for one partner
and our CFII to fly in from Sacramento. They show up and we review
everything I've gone over with the A&P. More questions are
asked/answered, we meet with the owner for more questions/answers then
close the deal. Time to start the journey West...after a few more hours
of returning rental cars, checking weather, running W&B numbers, etc.

Sunday afternoon, approx. 4:00 pm. We're off and pretty much heading
South as there are reports of severe turbulence over the Rockies. The
Northern route home would have been much shorter but a front is moving
through the Salt Lake City area where we'd planned to spend the night
so, southward it was. Stopped for the night at Farmington, NM and had a
big steak dinner to celebrate. Life is good.

Monday Morning: We launch from Farmington, my first chance to fly a leg
of the return journey. Weather was pretty good as we headed towards AZ.
We encountered some moderate turbulence along the way and it was
pretty much clear below 12000 until we were closer to Kingman, AZ, the
first fuel stop. Ceilings lowered a bit such that we had to fly around a
certain ridge line between us and the airport and the winds were pretty
strong but pretty much right down the runway. After fueling, we
discover that the restaurant is closed. Ah, time for the first of what
would be two vending machine meals for the day.

By the time we launch from Kingman, the sun was out and the wind wasn't
quite as bad. Off towards Bakersfield, CA where we hope to actually
eat a decent meal. I almost took a nap in the back seat during part of
this leg.

Monday afternoon: We landed at Bakersfield and gassed up. We're
looking at the time and since we wanted to make it home before dark, we
opt for the 2nd vending machine meal of the day and I flew the last leg
to MCC (former McClellan AFB) where we have a hanger, at least for this
month. The hanger was an unknown until the return trip as we have
several irons in the fire and took what first came open.

As we're descending into the Sacramento area, our CFII asks if we know
about how the gear indicator bulbs come out and how to quickly test for
a burned out bulb. He demonstrates and I think nothing much of
it...until I drop the gear and only get two in the green. We quickly
swap the left/right main bulbs and see get a green on the left main.
All this happens as I'm flying the pattern (a good experience in
"Aviate, Navigate, Communicate"). So, two green plus one green equals
three in the green. Good, I can continue turning base to final and
don't have to do a go around to troubleshoot. Phew. Landed, parked,
unloaded the plane and headed home. I was one tired puppy.

I'm still tired...but grinning just like after the first solo whenever I
think "Hey, I own an airplane".

If anyone wants to see a picture, drop me an e-mail. I'll post them
somewhere but have a few other things going on right now.

This weekend, I get to fly with our instructor and, hopefully, finish
off the insurance mandated dual time then see how comfortable I feel
flying solo. I'll probably log the required dual and solo time in the
next month then I can look forward to carrying passengers. Oh ya, that
and continue with my instrument rating.


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-IA Student-Student Arrow Owner

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

Great story Jack! Sounds like you had a real pilots adventure getting
home... think think think... fly around weather... stay safe... and eat out
of vending machines!

Tip on the 3 greens... remember that the panel lights will dim the gear
lights.... if you don't get 3 green, make sure the panel lights are off....
also the rheostat (or what ever dims them) can fail... ask me how I know,
rather ask the fire department at GRR how we found out together! Came out of
the clouds, turned the panel lights off, but no greenys... switched bulbs,
checked circuit breakers, cycled gear, you name it... no greenys. Tower
said they thought the gear looked down.
Landed verrrry gently.... and without incident.

Remember... the most common gear up landings are made.....

in amphibions on water!!

GUMPS on every leg,
Jim

"Jack Allison" wrote in message
...
A few more details on my Arrow buying adventure this weekend. Sorry, no
pictures posted yet but I did send a couple to Jay H. for an appropriate
update (as in "Jay, could you do me a favor and replace the picture of
the rental C-172 with pictures of much nicer airplane").

Saturday: Flew commercially from Sacramento to Denver and had my first
chance to lay eyes on N2104T, located at Front Range airport. It was
everything the TAP pictures had shown, and then some (especially after
reviewing the logs). I had a chance to meet the A&P that has been doing
the maintenance and the instructor that would provide my first hour of
dual in the Arrow. Flew for 1.2 hours doing some basic maneuvers
followed by three landings. It was great. N2104T flies straight and
performed nicely given the density altitude of the Denver area. By this
time, I'm well pleased and really thinking we've scored the nicest '71
Arrow on the planet.

Sunday: Early start, I meet with the A&P to review the logs. Logs are
very clean. The plane just came out of annual last week and has a new
fuel pump and forward spinner bracket. Reviewed the logs which answered
most of the questions I'd been wondering about. Had a chance to poke
around the plane a bit more as we pulled the cowl and some inspection
panels. Everything is nice and clean. No leaks anywhere, Tail cone
area looks immaculate, the A&P answers all my questions and fills in a
lot of information from his own history with the plane. After a few
hours of this, we're finished and I have a chance to sit down with the
logs and crawl around the plane by myself as I'm waiting for one partner
and our CFII to fly in from Sacramento. They show up and we review
everything I've gone over with the A&P. More questions are
asked/answered, we meet with the owner for more questions/answers then
close the deal. Time to start the journey West...after a few more hours
of returning rental cars, checking weather, running W&B numbers, etc.

Sunday afternoon, approx. 4:00 pm. We're off and pretty much heading
South as there are reports of severe turbulence over the Rockies. The
Northern route home would have been much shorter but a front is moving
through the Salt Lake City area where we'd planned to spend the night
so, southward it was. Stopped for the night at Farmington, NM and had a
big steak dinner to celebrate. Life is good.

Monday Morning: We launch from Farmington, my first chance to fly a leg
of the return journey. Weather was pretty good as we headed towards AZ.
We encountered some moderate turbulence along the way and it was
pretty much clear below 12000 until we were closer to Kingman, AZ, the
first fuel stop. Ceilings lowered a bit such that we had to fly around a
certain ridge line between us and the airport and the winds were pretty
strong but pretty much right down the runway. After fueling, we
discover that the restaurant is closed. Ah, time for the first of what
would be two vending machine meals for the day.

By the time we launch from Kingman, the sun was out and the wind wasn't
quite as bad. Off towards Bakersfield, CA where we hope to actually
eat a decent meal. I almost took a nap in the back seat during part of
this leg.

Monday afternoon: We landed at Bakersfield and gassed up. We're
looking at the time and since we wanted to make it home before dark, we
opt for the 2nd vending machine meal of the day and I flew the last leg
to MCC (former McClellan AFB) where we have a hanger, at least for this
month. The hanger was an unknown until the return trip as we have
several irons in the fire and took what first came open.

As we're descending into the Sacramento area, our CFII asks if we know
about how the gear indicator bulbs come out and how to quickly test for
a burned out bulb. He demonstrates and I think nothing much of
it...until I drop the gear and only get two in the green. We quickly
swap the left/right main bulbs and see get a green on the left main.
All this happens as I'm flying the pattern (a good experience in
"Aviate, Navigate, Communicate"). So, two green plus one green equals
three in the green. Good, I can continue turning base to final and
don't have to do a go around to troubleshoot. Phew. Landed, parked,
unloaded the plane and headed home. I was one tired puppy.

I'm still tired...but grinning just like after the first solo whenever I
think "Hey, I own an airplane".

If anyone wants to see a picture, drop me an e-mail. I'll post them
somewhere but have a few other things going on right now.

This weekend, I get to fly with our instructor and, hopefully, finish
off the insurance mandated dual time then see how comfortable I feel
flying solo. I'll probably log the required dual and solo time in the
next month then I can look forward to carrying passengers. Oh ya, that
and continue with my instrument rating.


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-IA Student-Student Arrow Owner

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

Congrats on the 'O' part of AOPA.

I too, had an experience w/ no greens when I was getting my complex rating
for the Commercial. It turned out to be the rheostat. My wet behind the
ears CFII didn't even figure it out. I did by going over everything on the
panel.

--

Enjoy, {|;-)

Victor J. (Jim) Osborne, Jr.

VOsborne2 at charter dot net
"Jim Burns" wrote in message
...
Great story Jack! Sounds like you had a real pilots adventure getting
home... think think think... fly around weather... stay safe... and eat
out
of vending machines!

Tip on the 3 greens... remember that the panel lights will dim the gear
lights.... if you don't get 3 green, make sure the panel lights are
off....
also the rheostat (or what ever dims them) can fail... ask me how I know,
rather ask the fire department at GRR how we found out together! Came out
of
the clouds, turned the panel lights off, but no greenys... switched bulbs,
checked circuit breakers, cycled gear, you name it... no greenys. Tower
said they thought the gear looked down.
Landed verrrry gently.... and without incident.

Remember... the most common gear up landings are made.....

in amphibions on water!!

GUMPS on every leg,
Jim

"Jack Allison" wrote in message
...
A few more details on my Arrow buying adventure this weekend. Sorry, no
pictures posted yet but I did send a couple to Jay H. for an appropriate
update (as in "Jay, could you do me a favor and replace the picture of
the rental C-172 with pictures of much nicer airplane").

Saturday: Flew commercially from Sacramento to Denver and had my first
chance to lay eyes on N2104T, located at Front Range airport. It was
everything the TAP pictures had shown, and then some (especially after
reviewing the logs). I had a chance to meet the A&P that has been doing
the maintenance and the instructor that would provide my first hour of
dual in the Arrow. Flew for 1.2 hours doing some basic maneuvers
followed by three landings. It was great. N2104T flies straight and
performed nicely given the density altitude of the Denver area. By this
time, I'm well pleased and really thinking we've scored the nicest '71
Arrow on the planet.

Sunday: Early start, I meet with the A&P to review the logs. Logs are
very clean. The plane just came out of annual last week and has a new
fuel pump and forward spinner bracket. Reviewed the logs which answered
most of the questions I'd been wondering about. Had a chance to poke
around the plane a bit more as we pulled the cowl and some inspection
panels. Everything is nice and clean. No leaks anywhere, Tail cone
area looks immaculate, the A&P answers all my questions and fills in a
lot of information from his own history with the plane. After a few
hours of this, we're finished and I have a chance to sit down with the
logs and crawl around the plane by myself as I'm waiting for one partner
and our CFII to fly in from Sacramento. They show up and we review
everything I've gone over with the A&P. More questions are
asked/answered, we meet with the owner for more questions/answers then
close the deal. Time to start the journey West...after a few more hours
of returning rental cars, checking weather, running W&B numbers, etc.

Sunday afternoon, approx. 4:00 pm. We're off and pretty much heading
South as there are reports of severe turbulence over the Rockies. The
Northern route home would have been much shorter but a front is moving
through the Salt Lake City area where we'd planned to spend the night
so, southward it was. Stopped for the night at Farmington, NM and had a
big steak dinner to celebrate. Life is good.

Monday Morning: We launch from Farmington, my first chance to fly a leg
of the return journey. Weather was pretty good as we headed towards AZ.
We encountered some moderate turbulence along the way and it was
pretty much clear below 12000 until we were closer to Kingman, AZ, the
first fuel stop. Ceilings lowered a bit such that we had to fly around a
certain ridge line between us and the airport and the winds were pretty
strong but pretty much right down the runway. After fueling, we
discover that the restaurant is closed. Ah, time for the first of what
would be two vending machine meals for the day.

By the time we launch from Kingman, the sun was out and the wind wasn't
quite as bad. Off towards Bakersfield, CA where we hope to actually
eat a decent meal. I almost took a nap in the back seat during part of
this leg.

Monday afternoon: We landed at Bakersfield and gassed up. We're
looking at the time and since we wanted to make it home before dark, we
opt for the 2nd vending machine meal of the day and I flew the last leg
to MCC (former McClellan AFB) where we have a hanger, at least for this
month. The hanger was an unknown until the return trip as we have
several irons in the fire and took what first came open.

As we're descending into the Sacramento area, our CFII asks if we know
about how the gear indicator bulbs come out and how to quickly test for
a burned out bulb. He demonstrates and I think nothing much of
it...until I drop the gear and only get two in the green. We quickly
swap the left/right main bulbs and see get a green on the left main.
All this happens as I'm flying the pattern (a good experience in
"Aviate, Navigate, Communicate"). So, two green plus one green equals
three in the green. Good, I can continue turning base to final and
don't have to do a go around to troubleshoot. Phew. Landed, parked,
unloaded the plane and headed home. I was one tired puppy.

I'm still tired...but grinning just like after the first solo whenever I
think "Hey, I own an airplane".

If anyone wants to see a picture, drop me an e-mail. I'll post them
somewhere but have a few other things going on right now.

This weekend, I get to fly with our instructor and, hopefully, finish
off the insurance mandated dual time then see how comfortable I feel
flying solo. I'll probably log the required dual and solo time in the
next month then I can look forward to carrying passengers. Oh ya, that
and continue with my instrument rating.


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-IA Student-Student Arrow Owner

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

Enjoy the Arrow - it's one of the great airplanes. Be thankful for
that free-fall landing gear. I landed with 2 green last year when one
of the squat switch wires broke from old age - strong pucker factor.

No more wondering what jerk last flew the airplane, huh? Even better,
since you'll be in the same airplane all of the time you'll pretty soon
figure it it knows how to read your mind. Think it, it does it. Took
mine (an M20J) about 20 hours to figure out what I was trying to do.
Then it began to really be fun -- you'd know exactly where it would
touch down, if you were a couple of knots fast on final it felt awful!
I think you'll find hand flying the thing IFR great fun, too, holding
altitude within a needle width gets easy (but in my case having glide
slope and localizer centered near the ground still takes lots of
attention).

You'll also figure out how to make it sip gas: low rpms, careful
leaning, and the like. The IO360 that pulled the Mooney around on long
trips eastbound (10 or 12 thousand feet) would be very happy drinking
about 8 GPH. That provides all kinds of endurance (we carried about 60
gallons useable).

About fuel management --for what it's worth I liked to taxi out on one
tank, switch over to the take-off tank for run-up -- I'd break the hand
of anyone who tried to switch tanks afterrunup and before takeoff!--. I
figured at that point I proved both tanks would run the engine. I'd fly
away half the tank I took off on, switch over, and take most of the
fuel off the other tank. One of the thought processes was that the
first tank still had enough in it to get me back to where I started
from when I switched. (East coast based, nearly all first legs were
into a headwind). No matter what my flight plan said, when I switched
back to the takeoff tank (now I had somewhat more than 25% of the fuel
left) I was going to land for gas.

That fuel management scheme was part of our own checklist that was a
bunch more thought out than the one the airplane came with. (Are your
navs and coms set up for the miss inbound of the marker? Ours were. ADF
was almost always tuned to a strong station near our destination, it
turns out the adf needle makes a good replacement for the DG should it
fail. That was part of our en route checklist.)

There's a thought. Other pilots, chip in here. What things do you do to
keep yourself safe that are not usually taught? I've offered a couple
of obvious ones, you've got to have better ones.

I burn fuel from the tank that the minute hand on my clock is pointing to.
That way I can always tell by looking if I remembered to switch tanks last
1/2 hour.

My tie-down is fifty feet from the runway. I don't switch tanks on the
ground for this reason. I'd hate to switch to a bad one only to find out at
100' that it's bad. I'd rather find out 1/2 hour later, at several thousand
feet. My opinion will probably change the first time I find bad gas in one
of my tanks.




"Tony" wrote in message
oups.com...
No more wondering what jerk last flew the airplane, huh? Even better,
since you'll be in the same airplane all of the time you'll pretty soon
figure it it knows how to read your mind. Think it, it does it. Took
mine (an M20J) about 20 hours to figure out what I was trying to do.
Then it began to really be fun -- you'd know exactly where it would
touch down, if you were a couple of knots fast on final it felt awful!
I think you'll find hand flying the thing IFR great fun, too, holding
altitude within a needle width gets easy (but in my case having glide
slope and localizer centered near the ground still takes lots of
attention).

You'll also figure out how to make it sip gas: low rpms, careful
leaning, and the like. The IO360 that pulled the Mooney around on long
trips eastbound (10 or 12 thousand feet) would be very happy drinking
about 8 GPH. That provides all kinds of endurance (we carried about 60
gallons useable).

About fuel management --for what it's worth I liked to taxi out on one
tank, switch over to the take-off tank for run-up -- I'd break the hand
of anyone who tried to switch tanks afterrunup and before takeoff!--. I
figured at that point I proved both tanks would run the engine. I'd fly
away half the tank I took off on, switch over, and take most of the
fuel off the other tank. One of the thought processes was that the
first tank still had enough in it to get me back to where I started
from when I switched. (East coast based, nearly all first legs were
into a headwind). No matter what my flight plan said, when I switched
back to the takeoff tank (now I had somewhat more than 25% of the fuel
left) I was going to land for gas.

That fuel management scheme was part of our own checklist that was a
bunch more thought out than the one the airplane came with. (Are your
navs and coms set up for the miss inbound of the marker? Ours were. ADF
was almost always tuned to a strong station near our destination, it
turns out the adf needle makes a good replacement for the DG should it
fail. That was part of our en route checklist.)

There's a thought. Other pilots, chip in here. What things do you do to
keep yourself safe that are not usually taught? I've offered a couple
of obvious ones, you've got to have better ones.

Jack Allison wrote:

A few more details on my Arrow buying adventure this weekend. Sorry,
no pictures posted yet but I did send a couple to Jay H. for an
appropriate update (as in "Jay, could you do me a favor and replace
the picture of the rental C-172 with pictures of much nicer airplane").

Saturday: Flew commercially from Sacramento to Denver and had my first
chance to lay eyes on N2104T, located at Front Range airport. It was
everything the TAP pictures had shown, and then some (especially after
reviewing the logs). I had a chance to meet the A&P that has been
doing the maintenance and the instructor that would provide my first
hour of dual in the Arrow. Flew for 1.2 hours doing some basic
maneuvers followed by three landings. It was great. N2104T flies
straight and performed nicely given the density altitude of the Denver
area. By this time, I'm well pleased and really thinking we've scored
the nicest '71 Arrow on the planet.

Sunday: Early start, I meet with the A&P to review the logs. Logs are
very clean. The plane just came out of annual last week and has a new
fuel pump and forward spinner bracket. Reviewed the logs which
answered most of the questions I'd been wondering about. Had a chance
to poke around the plane a bit more as we pulled the cowl and some
inspection panels. Everything is nice and clean. No leaks anywhere,
Tail cone area looks immaculate, the A&P answers all my questions and
fills in a lot of information from his own history with the plane.
After a few hours of this, we're finished and I have a chance to sit
down with the logs and crawl around the plane by myself as I'm waiting
for one partner and our CFII to fly in from Sacramento. They show up
and we review everything I've gone over with the A&P. More questions
are asked/answered, we meet with the owner for more questions/answers
then close the deal. Time to start the journey West...after a few
more hours of returning rental cars, checking weather, running W&B
numbers, etc.

Sunday afternoon, approx. 4:00 pm. We're off and pretty much heading
South as there are reports of severe turbulence over the Rockies. The
Northern route home would have been much shorter but a front is moving
through the Salt Lake City area where we'd planned to spend the night
so, southward it was. Stopped for the night at Farmington, NM and had
a big steak dinner to celebrate. Life is good.

Monday Morning: We launch from Farmington, my first chance to fly a
leg of the return journey. Weather was pretty good as we headed
towards AZ. We encountered some moderate turbulence along the way and
it was pretty much clear below 12000 until we were closer to Kingman,
AZ, the first fuel stop. Ceilings lowered a bit such that we had to
fly around a certain ridge line between us and the airport and the
winds were pretty strong but pretty much right down the runway. After
fueling, we discover that the restaurant is closed. Ah, time for the
first of what would be two vending machine meals for the day.

By the time we launch from Kingman, the sun was out and the wind
wasn't quite as bad. Off towards Bakersfield, CA where we hope to
actually eat a decent meal. I almost took a nap in the back seat
during part of this leg.

Monday afternoon: We landed at Bakersfield and gassed up. We're
looking at the time and since we wanted to make it home before dark,
we opt for the 2nd vending machine meal of the day and I flew the last
leg to MCC (former McClellan AFB) where we have a hanger, at least for
this month. The hanger was an unknown until the return trip as we
have several irons in the fire and took what first came open.

As we're descending into the Sacramento area, our CFII asks if we know
about how the gear indicator bulbs come out and how to quickly test
for a burned out bulb. He demonstrates and I think nothing much of
it...until I drop the gear and only get two in the green. We quickly
swap the left/right main bulbs and see get a green on the left main.
All this happens as I'm flying the pattern (a good experience in
"Aviate, Navigate, Communicate"). So, two green plus one green equals
three in the green. Good, I can continue turning base to final and
don't have to do a go around to troubleshoot. Phew. Landed, parked,
unloaded the plane and headed home. I was one tired puppy.

I'm still tired...but grinning just like after the first solo whenever
I think "Hey, I own an airplane".

If anyone wants to see a picture, drop me an e-mail. I'll post them
somewhere but have a few other things going on right now.

This weekend, I get to fly with our instructor and, hopefully, finish
off the insurance mandated dual time then see how comfortable I feel
flying solo. I'll probably log the required dual and solo time in the
next month then I can look forward to carrying passengers. Oh ya,
that and continue with my instrument rating.


How did you find the performance, TAS, fuel burn, etc?

Ross

Sounds like you have a well thought out plan, too. I think it might
have been in the owner's manual that said something like "switch to
most full fuel tank" before takeoff, and after run-up. That's the worst
possible time to change tanks. The only advantage my fuel scheme might
have is, after taking most of the fuel from the second tank, I want to
be in a landing pattern or at least cleared for a landing. It gives me
a fairly secure 25% fuel remaining plan. I'd done a couple of really
long flights, fuel limitations (and pilot bladder limits, if truth was
to be told) were limiting factors.

Fuel tanks are switched approximately each hour. Fuel tanks are ALWAYS
switched overhead or in close proximity to an enroute airport.

Tony wrote:
About fuel management --for what it's worth I liked to taxi out on one
tank, switch over to the take-off tank for run-up -- I'd break the hand
of anyone who tried to switch tanks afterrunup and before takeoff!--. I
figured at that point I proved both tanks would run the engine. I'd fly
away half the tank I took off on, switch over, and take most of the
fuel off the other tank. One of the thought processes was that the
first tank still had enough in it to get me back to where I started
from when I switched. (East coast based, nearly all first legs were
into a headwind). No matter what my flight plan said, when I switched
back to the takeoff tank (now I had somewhat more than 25% of the fuel
left) I was going to land for gas.

"Ross Richardson" wrote

How did you find the performance, TAS, fuel burn, etc?

Ross - be kind to dialup users; trim your responses. You sent a 6kb post
for less than 1kb of response.

Thanks.
--
Jim in NC