On 17-Mar-2004, Jack Cunniff wrote:

Re your query - it depends. I have an Arrow, and would love to have that
panel in my plane. I plan to keep my plane for years, so am not overly
concerned about the investment in my panel. If you were going to sell your

plane next year, you might hold onto the ADF and DME, and put them
back in (with another nav/com) and pull the new stuff out. That way, you
can put the Garmin stuff into another plane.


I, too, have an Arrow, a '79 Arrow IV. I agree with Jack that if you like
the airplane, and it meets your needs, then an investment in avionics
upgrades makes sense. This is particularly true if (a) you fly a lot of
IFR, and (b) you plan on keeping the airplane a while. Just remember that
you will recover very little of that investment if and when you sell the
plane.

By the way, as long as you have your checkbook open, and if you do in fact
fly IFR a lot, then I'd strongly recomment that you get an electric backup
AI or a backup vacuum system. All the fancy radios won't help much if you
can't keep the airplane upright and flying straight after a vacuum pump
failure.
--
-Elliott Drucker