By Scott Sherer

I’m sure you know the drill: There’s airplane dollars and there’s real dollars. In airplane dollars, everything generally costs 10 times more. Period! A $10 item at your local hardware store will cost at least $100 at your airplane store. We’re all used to it and none of us likes it. But today, I found an exception to that rule, and I’m truly delighted! I thought I’d better share it with you so you can take advantage of it, too.

Four years ago, I bought a 1977 Turbo Arrow III, my eighth airplane, and I’ve restored all of them to like-new condition. Like all our planes, my Arrow has a Piper External Power (PEP) connector used for plugging in your jumper cables. On mine, the spring that holds the cover in place has failed. There is no way to replace the spring, that I’ve found anyway. As a result, the cover flops around and bangs on the side of the fuselage.

I recently received a new Wag-Aero catalog in the mail and rather than just filing it or discarding it, I thumbed through it. I usually just rely on their website to find things I need, but not this time. I saw something that jumped right out at me on page 29! So I ordered a new PEP group receptacle for the whopping sum of $26.25. Gosh, this was just like going to my hardware store. It arrived and was very easy to install with a signoff by my mechanic.

So if you need one, it’s Wag Aero part number M-895-001. If you need the plug, too, you can buy one for $31.65, and it is part number M-895-000. They also have Piper jumper cables, too, for $247.15 and that’s part number M-948-000.

It took about an hour to install the PEP group receptacle for $26.25. It was a good day, and I restored another part of the plane.