Piper's perennial CPL trainer, the Arrow, has been around in many forms since 1967. Steve Hitchen found out that the current model, the Arrow V, has echoes of the old combined with the allure of the new.
Have you ever spotted someone in the distance that you were sure was an old friend, only to see up close that it wasn’t who you thought it was at all? Embarrassing … especially if you have given them a hearty wave and “G’day” from a long way off.
You will find this happening when you approach an Arrow V for the first time: from a distance it looks like the old friend you have known since the Wright Flyer was a pushbike, but once you open the door, you’ll find it’s not the acquaintance you thought it to be. This one is plush, stylish and a little bit exotic, thanks to an extreme makeover from the magicians at Vero Beach.
Truly, the Piper Arrow is an aviation survival story, being the sole remnant of an era when commercial trainers sported retractable undercart. The same period spawned the C177RG Cardinal and the Beech C24R Sierra; both now gone, leaving the Arrow standing alone in its class. The evidence is on the flying school lines, where most commercial trainers today are an Arrow of one model or another.
The latest evolutionary stage in the story only strengthens the Arrow’s claim to the commercial training title, with the final stone now in place: a glass cockpit. Its main rivals now are the fixed gear C182 and Cirrus SR22, both of which are superstars in their own right. The fight, however, is a three-way battle.
Gold and glittering Any aeroplane new to an airfield draws drooling pilots like ants to a bowl of sugar. When it is one of only two Arrows in Australia built since the restart of production at Piper in 1995 the enthusiasm is multiplied. The aircraft in question was Arrow V (VH-PAR), newly imported by Melbourne printer Dave Woodland, and Australian Flying was just as eager to look over it as anyone else.
With the warm glow of a Spring evening sun enveloping the gold and brown go-fast livery, PAR looked at a distance very much like the classic Arrow, only with a touch of sex appeal and a distinctive aura of energy. To the practiced eye there is little difference in the external lines from the Arrow III; it looks like your same old comfort zone, but someone has renovated it.
All the typical characteristics of what Arrows have been for the past 30 years are still very much in evidence: a 200hp Lycoming, low-wing, all aluminium, retractable gear with a constant-speed prop. It’s a formula that has worked well for Piper since 1967, and they are confident the Arrow V will continue the heritage.
From the Arrow IV there is a major difference: gone is the trendy T-tail configuration that was as much derided as it was loved. Instead, the current tail is conventional, which should please pilots that were eternally running out of elevator command in the Arrow IVs. No doubt they were an acquired taste, but are no longer on the menu.
Inside there is more difference. Svelte leather seats with the waft of pristine leather, Avidyne glass cockpit and moulded control yokes are all evidence that you are now sitting in a state-of-the-art GA commercial trainer. Even the harnesses have been upgraded to a two-piece with the lap and sash belts combined; one smooth click and you’re secure. However, Woodland did not buy his Arrow for its good looks, he bought it to do a job and it will be expected to pay its way.
“When I decided to invest in a plane I spoke to a few people about what would be the best option,” he explains. “I wanted a plane that would fill a need, and it seemed to me that there would be plenty of work for an Arrow doing commercial training.”
Training is unlikely to be the only source of income – the Arrow V is also a handy personal aircraft for touring. Provided you strike a good balance between people, kit and fuel, you will find the Arrow a good aircraft to chew up the outback miles. It makes a good compromise between the economy of an Archer and the speed of a Saratoga.
Once more to the air There is something soothing about the happy purr of a new-born Lycoming IO-360 motor. When the throttle is fire-walled on an Arrow V the engine responds with what can only be described as exuberance. It can be hard to tell who is keener to fly: the pilot or the aeroplane. According to the book, it should take only 300 metres to hit the 70 knot take-off speed, but that of course depends upon a raft of variables including runway surface. Having said that, during the test flight Woodland didn’t use much of the grass runway to unstick the nose wheel, leaving no doubt that the book figures are within reach of an average pilot with a good technique.
With the wheels stowed away, the Arrow will climb eagerly at 90 knots, giving you a climb rate of over 800 feet per minute. So if you find your aircraft struggling on climb-out when it shouldn’t, take it as a hint that you might have forgotten to retract something.
Critics of the Arrow have always decried the performance, generally pointing out that they are expensive to run for a 125 knot aircraft. It is true that they make hard work out of flying at lower levels, but once the altimeter rolls past 5000 feet, the performance starts to lift.
On the bright spring evening of our test flight, Woodland leveled off at 6500ft and used the lean-assist feature to set-up PAR in optimum cruise condition. With the temperature outside of 5°C and QNH 1018, the TAS steadied on 135 without much fine-tuning being needed. There is no trick to this, the higher an aeroplane flies the faster it goes. Older Arrows with wearier Lycomings might not hit the book figures anymore, but the Arrow V is infused with the energy of youth and so reaches the advertised TAS easily.
Admittedly, the TAS performance can be attributed to a well-trimmed aircraft and an obedient autopilot, an indirect benefit of the current generation of glass cockpit avionics. VH-PAR is equipped with an S-Tec autopilot, but Woodland prefers to hand-fly the aircraft into the cruise before switching “George” on. There is no etched-in-stone rule about when to engage the autopilot; each pilot has their own technique to suit their own style.
And it’s not like the Arrow V is a hard plane to hand-fly anyway. Electric trims for both aileron and rudder are standard, with the buttons for both nestled in the left side of the control yoke along with the push-to-talk and the autopilot disconnect. The yoke itself is totally new; gone is the old narrow one with the finger grips. Instead, Arrow owners are spoilt with a moulded polymer yoke that feels beautifully tactile and sits easily in the hand.
But one thing that hasn’t changed is the long-time Arrow characteristic of roll resistance. For those used to the compliant ease with which a Warrior or an Archer rolls, the first turn of an Arrow might be a bit startling. Even pilots of larger aircraft like Bonanzas might be surprised. It takes a bit more oomph to get rolling, but once your muscles get used to the work, it’s no great shakes. In fact, the heavy ailerons would well prepare CPL students for steering the heavier aircraft they will encounter in their professional careers. And isn’t that what the Arrow was originally designed for?
Cruising together Dave Woodland looked much unstressed cruising high above the grey-blue water of Westernport Bay in the left seat of PAR. Nice comfortable seats, all gauges in the green, autopilot on and following the heading bug, noise-cancelling headsets (not standard!), eyes watchfully scanning the sky. What was there to be stressed about?
Other than weather, controlled airspace and all those other pitfalls of aviation, about the only thing you need worry about with an Arrow V is the weight-and-balance sheet, and even common sense and quashed bravado will see that right as well.
For no matter what the inexperienced might tell you, an Arrow is indeed a four-place aeroplane, just not with full fuel on board. The long-range tanks offered as an option on previous marques are now standard on the Arrow V, giving 273 litres capacity. With the IO-360 leaned for best economy of 39lph, you won’t be in fuel stress for seven hours. That’s nearly a full working day!
However, a fuel load like that will take a huge chunk out of your load-carrying ability. Our demo plane had a BEW of 817kg and a MTOW of 1247kg. At full fuel, that’s enough for two bods of 80kg each and heaps left over for bags. Put a third person onboard and the bags had better stay in the car. To keep everyone’s toothbrush in the plane, serious consideration needs to be given to the need for that much fuel.
Obviously, the key to unlocking the Arrow’s versatility comes in good planning, balancing load and endurance. By reworking the figures, the best compromise appears to be three people with 10kgs of bags each. That will give you about five to six hours calculated at best economy, which is achieved at 65 per cent power with a TAS of 130kts.
In reality, most pilots will opt for the higher TAS unless they need the endurance, which will diminish the numbers a bit. Regardless, it is still respectable performance.
In the office With most manufacturers now offering integrated avionics as standard on aircraft as small as C172s and Warriors, it appears the traditional clocks are now on the eve of extinction as equipment in new aircraft. Nothing wrong with that; the new technology offers huge advantages, from track-keeping and fuel economy to avoiding CTA and other aeroplanes. But the advantage of technology diminishes the less you use it. That is true of any of the features granted by glass cockpits; they are not to be used by halves.
New Arrow buyers can normally choose between the Avidyne Flightmax Entegra or Garmin G500 flat screen systems, although Woodland took over a cancelled European order, and so got the Avidyne glass by default. Not that he is worried in the slightest.
“It’s really well laid out and quite intuitive,” he offers. “And once you get used to it, the system is very easy to use. When I first flew the plane I found my eyes continually drifting back to the backup instruments, but the more I got used to the glass the easier I found it. “Everything you need to safely fly the plane is right at your fingertips, and all the systems integrate very well. The things I don't like are that it makes you spoilt and in some respects lazy. Also, the system takes a while to initialise before you can take off, during which time you must remain motionless, which is an issue on gravel strips.”
Beneath the glare shield, PAR shows off some state-of-the-art avionics and an updated panel that sets it apart from the previous models. In cahoots with the customary Primary Flight Display and Multi Function Display are twin Garmin 430s, an S-Tec 55X autopilot and a Garmin GTX330 Mode S transponder. This aircraft also has a DME and KR87 ADF, both of which are legacies of the original European order.
This sort of gear gives the pilot the luxury of being able to slot a plan into one of the 430s, overlay it on the PFD compass rose and slave the 55X to GPS. Dutifully, the Arrow V will follow the GPS track, giving you plenty of time for the other tasks that make flying a safe proposition, and a bit of leeway for looking around outside to boot.
The track can also be overlaid on the MFD moving map, so flying faux pas like failing to clear terrain or trespassing into CTA are more obvious sooner, enabling prudent corrective action. For sure, if you get lost you will have to come up with more imaginative excuses than you’ve needed in the past!
One standard feature on the panel is glow-in-the-dark rocker switches. A great idea for night visual work that can reduce the instance of wayward fingers, especially when things get a bit busy. However, Piper has continued to thumb its nose at convention and installed white master switches instead of the traditional red. This is similar to the Archer III, but on the smaller plane they are overhead and guarded so you can’t accidently shut-off the battery or alternator in flight. The Arrow V has no such guards and the masters blend in with all the other switches.
Getting down Setting-up a consistent 500 feet per minute rate of descent is only a matter of tweaking a couple of knobs on the PFD and autopilot and the Arrow heads downhill as evenly as an Olympic skier. Vigilance is needed, however, to keep the mixture at the optimum and to regulate the power to keep the speed within the green arc. In spite of all the automation, the pilot still has work to do.
In a standard approach, the landing gear is generally dropped somewhere on crosswind or downwind. The gear extension speed in the Arrow is 129kts, which is often not a bother because the Arrow V tends to cruise at lower airspeeds below 5000ft anyway. Once the wheels hit the slipstream, you will be lucky to see the ASI above 100.
And here’s something else new: the old green cubic gear lights have been replaced with three vertical lights with “left”, “nose” and “right” labels. There doesn’t appear to be much advantage to this, but it will stop an instructor from easing a globe out to see how you react to only two greens on the undercart!
For many flyers, an Arrow is the first aircraft they will encounter that needs to be flown into the flare. Any ideas of pulling the power and gliding to the threshold need to be discarded immediately; she will drop like an anvil thrown from a hot-air balloon if you try that. You will also come back to earth with a thud if your landing technique is light on the hold-off; they don’t like to be flown on.
Like most aeroplanes, a good Arrow landing is often the product of approach discipline; hit the speeds and the glideslope and you’re halfway to bragging rights. The Arrow V flies base at 80 and final at 70, with power kept on into the flare. At that configuration with full 40° of flap (traditional mechanical type), the book says you will roll to a halt in 190 metres.
In short… Thousands of CPL careers have been launched in a Piper Arrow. There is a good reason why most commercial trainers in Australia are some model of Arrow: they are durable and have characteristics that echo what CPLs can expect to find further on in their careers.
Knowing what the airlines (mainly US) wanted to see in potential pilots, Piper has hung tough with their tried-and-true commercial trainer, giving it an interior overhaul to match the brave new world of avionics and added a bit of luxury to entice new aircraft buyers. Have they made a good thing better? In terms of the actual aeroplane, the answer to the question is a good, hearty “yes”.
So whether or not your desire is to get yourself a CPL, or to own a good solid cross-country performer, don’t reject the Arrow V as a very viable plane for doing both. And if you have owned and loved an Arrow in the past, there is a lot about the new one to like.
From a distance, the new Arrow looks like an old acquaintance; it’s not until you get up close that you realise it is a completely new friend.
Specifications (based on VH-PAR) Basic Empty Weight: 817kg MTOW: 1247kg TAS @ 75% power: 137kts Fuel capacity: 273 litres Fuel consumption at best economy (65% power), correctly leaned: 39lph Range with 45 min reserves: 880nm Engine: Four cylinder Lycoming IO-360-C1C6 200 hp, 2000 TBO Propeller: Two-blade McCauley Constant Speed Seats: Four Baggage compartment limit: 90kg Book price: $US434,275
The Piper Arrow V. (Steve Hitchen)
