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