Cessna Cardinal 177 RG II v. Piper Arrow III (70s) v. Piper Arrow III (brand new)

Jay Honeck wrote:
Call me fickle, self-oriented, greedy, snobby, what have you, but I do
not fly and will not own a fixed-gear plane.

That's the goofiest thing I've read here in a long time.

It's not about speed it's about the landing gear lever.

Atlas, our fixed-gear Piper Cherokee 235 Pathfinder, will absolutely
walk away from an Arrow in a head-to-head speed race, (I've never raced
a Cardinal RG, but I've over-taken older Mooneys and Bonanzas, too) has
a 1460 pound useful load, and burns that sweet car gas. In every
measurable way, the Pathfinder is superior to the Arrow, except one --
fuel burn. With the money you're talking about, that hardly matters.

A pro I'm seeing with the Arrow is the Johnson Arm flap lever, which I
greatly prefer to motorized systems every day. What all of us, and
myself, are forgetting about aircraft with more ponies than 200 hp and
more expensive (as was the case with the new arrow) is the cost of
insurance.

Do what you want, but IMHO if you've got the kind of money you're
talking about spending, you'd be crazy not to get a Lancair or a
Cirrus.

Cirrus and Lancair are great planes... but what I've said a few times
now is try to get parts for them where I am, theres a practicality
portion to my purchase as well, a "happy medium" has to be reached with
an aircraft in Hawai'i, the planes you see around here are VERY limited
because of that reason, primarily to provide parts on hand for many
aircraft, while a Lancair or Cirrus might be waiting on a part for
months. Think of how horrible it is to get a new engine dropped in a
plane in Hawai'i, not only do we pay what you guys pay, but I have to
get the thing shipped here for about $3,000. One of the guys at our
hangar is overhauling the engines on his Chieftain, comes to about
$60,000 each. Just because I can spend doesn't mean I want to create a
black hole for my money.