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

wrote:

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.

What about it?


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.

I'm just the opposite. I learned to fly in two C150s of different
vintage. One had manual flaps and the newer one electric. I've always
preferred the electric. The manual flaps is one of the things I most
dislike about the Arrow I now fly. I could put my instrument charts
between the seats of my 182, but in the Arrow there is little room
anywhere for anything and the flap lever takes of valuable real estate.

Different strokes for different folks.

Matt