The Joys(?) of airplane ownership

Last year I decided I wanted to obtain my instrument flight certification. Looking at what I had been spending on airplane rentals, I decided that if I could find a reliable aircraft, I could break even with a purchase with the added benefit of having an airplane at my disposal, not having to work around other renters' schedules. I figured we could take a few family vacations together and save some travel time.

After researching and looking for about 5 months, I settled on the Piper Arrow as my target aircraft. The Arrow is a good complex starter aircraft (it has retractable gear and an adjustable (constant speed) prop). It is really a beginner cross country plane. It can cruise ant 135 kts in the 8k to 10k altitude range.

I found a plane with a lot of hours - it had been a trainer for JAL pilots. However, the plane was relatively young (1979) and after its stint as a professional trainer, it was owned for a number of years by an A&P mechanic. The A&P had added a couple of speed modifications - another attraction to me.

"Aggie" as I now call this aircraft, had some older avionics, but the radio stack was made by Collins. Anyone I asked said that Collins radios would last forever. In addition, Aggie had an HSI, a working autopilot coupled to it, and a DME. I figured with all of these things going for it, I had found the value I was looking for. She checked out solid when I got her and once purchased I scheduled the time required by the insurance company to allow me to solo.

My first flight should have told me what I was in for. CFI Randy and I went up to start my instruction in a complex aircraft. When we set up for our first landing, the landing gear indicator for the left main gear failed to light (it showed green when we started) so we did a low approach and asked the tower to look at the gear. The tower advised the gear looked down, so we did a lap in the patter and landed without event. It turns out that a wire from the sensor had been cut by the gear - a simple fix, but this was the first of many trips to my mechanic. More to follow in a subsequent post.