Possibly Procuring an Arrow...

I've not owned one, but have flown them a little.
Very solid, safe airplane if a little slow for a retract. If the airframe is well taken care of, not bent, then the hours would not bother me as much since you are using it as a ratings workhorse anyway.

 

If you want to move up to a bigger single, like a Bonanza, then no, just go get the Bonanza and learn to fly it. What you really need to learn to fly the Bonanza well you won't get out of the Arrow.

One of the biggest parts of it is really speed and energy management. Yes you have to learn to manage the prop (ALL the balls to the wall when you have to go around) and when to put the gear down, but really, flying faster and more complex airplanes is about learning to stay ahead of the airplane and planning in advance how to manage your speed when you are coming down into the airport environment.

Unfortunaltey the Arrow is kind of a "tweener" in terms of a complex airplane. It isn't really that fast and is kind of draggy, even with the gear up, so you don't learn some of the energy management skills that you need in a faster, heavier, cleaner airplane. It's good enough to get the complex signoff, but really not much more than that. If you are planning on moving up to to a twin, I would suggest that you get into a faster heavier single so that you learn the energy management skills in a faster single and then move up to the twin, you will be working on managing the twin engines and not trying to learn speed management at the same time.

If you are looking for a complex signoff, then want to transition to something heavier and faster, you are going to need some instruction time, and if you get the faster airplane your time with the instructor getting the complex signoff, will be applied for insurance purposes as dual time in the faster airplane, which you will need anyway. Many insurance companies have a specified time of dual required to insure you in the complex airplane, so you might as well get it all at one time. In that case by the time you have enough hours to satisify your insurance company, you will have the signoff and be comfortable anyway.

 

I had one in a flight school I ran in the 90's. Great airplane. Very forgiving, and the procedures you utilize to fly it proficiently will serve you well in nearly any piston airplane. Also, the IO360 is a wonderful powerplant.

Why reskinned? Hail damage?

 

My flight school averaged 100 hours per month on each aircraft. We were blowing and going--even managed to pay for a couple of airplanes. It was a whole lot of work, and after a few years I figured out that the bank was making more money than me. To heck with that! I liquidated; went back to school; and spent the next decade as a banker! (Eventually became a Vice President of the bank that turned me down for an aircraft loan while starting the flight school!)

I am telling you this for two reasons: #1: It is funny. #2: So that you might believe me when I tell you that it is seriously difficult to make money on any piece of equipment that flies! Don't buy an airplane as an investment.

 

I wouldn't worry about the skins. Good paint, int, low eng hrs and radios all a plus. AF hrs DEFINATELY hurts price wise. It's all about the price (and this stuff isn't moving like it was a year ago either, though people like to price it like it is).

Good luck w/ your decision and your training!

 

Since you have determined what the primary use of this plane is for, a training mule, then you simply need to look at it as a tool and buy it for what will give you lowest flight hour cost and recoup as much of investment or zero it out. This is how the Air Force and the Alrlines buy planes, for the most part. For this, the Arrow is a good choice, but you need to leverage the economy and have minimum up front investment.

Of course, the opposite of this thinking is buying a warbird... which makes no rational sense at all.

 

If it did make sense, it wouldn't be half as much fun. Arrows are great aircraft, but you can't hang bombs off them.

 

The arrow is a nice plane, def. get the 200hp injected. The 360 line are amazing engines, and used in many planes (arrow, cherokee, da40, cardinal, etc etc etc).

I wouldn't suggest jumping straight into a bonanza, sure many people do it, and its a heated topic whether its advisable or not, I'm of the school that thinks its not. You will have enough to learn in the arrow with the 2 extra levers. If you jump straight to the bonanza you will be behind the curve and behind the airplane the whole time, which can, unfortunately, prove deadly in the end.

As for the high TT, I always say that paint, avionics and interior can be improved with money, but you can't buy lower TT (once you own the airplane of course).

Even if you buy the plane now with nice paint, avionics, etc. that stuff will fade, tear, be rendered "obsolete" etc. with time. 30k in avionics is nice, but if it doesn't have a G600, 530, 430, 340 and 327 its already outdated. If you put 400 hours on it, it's bound to get chips in the paint, tears in the interior, cracks in the plastic, etc. and when you go sell it it'll be just another 7.5k TT arrow with average cosmetics, and you'll take a financial hit trying to unload it.

Another thing, was it a school plane? If so you can bet it was banged, dropped onto the runway, etc. and that's not good in cherokees. Cherokees have the gear which attaches to the root of the wing, its not like a cessna, and subsequently some say they are a bit more delicate. Let alone the fact that this is an RG, so keep that in mind.

If you just want it as a trainer, I say go find something with lower time with acceptable interior and paint, don't buy a cream puff. That is, of course, if you're mostly worried about coming out clean, if you have money to burn then buy what you like and fly the wings off of it.

As for the leaseback I say forget it. An airplane is a very personal thing, and expensive to maintain. You don't want to be over water, without land in sight and start thinking about what the other pilots might have done to it that they didn't tell you about. Not only that, financially it might not even prove to be beneficial; no one will ever care for your plane like you, because they don't own it, so "why should they". Unfortunately this is how it goes, go look at a rental airplane.

If you've any more questions just ask.


BTW the arrow isn't a bad plane, 140kt on 9 gal/hr is pretty decent for what it is.