New member - First plane

chadshart

Been flying for 8 years and just bought this about 6 months ago. Going in for it's first annual this week. Sorry don't have many pictures of it.

2002 Piper Arrow III PA28R-201
Dual Garmin 430Ws
Stec 30 autopilot
Garmin GTX330 (currently getting ADS-B upgrade)

Will do Garmin G5s or an Aspen in the next year.

Only other problem that bugs me is there's no electric trim so the autopilot is constantly beeping at me to trim (in altitude hold mode). Anyone know the cost to add electric trim?

Austin

I have a Garmin GTN 750 and an Aspen 1000 system. Be careful. Aspen and Garmin don't like each other!! Special interface "boxes" are required on stuff like this $$$. Stick with one brand as much as you can.
Austin

Jmcmanna

Nice looking Arrow! The panel looks a lot like the ones I flew at UND in 2002-2003. As far as electric trim, I am so used to using the trim wheel, that even though my current Arrow has electric trim, I forget that it’s there most of the time.

arrow76r

I had "auto-trim" added to my S-Tec 30 system along with the ST-901 GPSS interface. The cost was NOT insignificant in that a new servo had to be added as well as the wiring for the interface units. I had become tired of the constant "beeping" as reported above. I can't recall the price but it was, as I recall, more than 2 AMU. Essentially you end up with an STec System 60 PSS. Works great too! The ST-901 allows the autopilot to anticipate course turns as well as intercepting and following GPS LPV and regular ILS approaches.

Scott Sherer

I have an STEC 55x with trim prompting. I have electric trim but no autotrim. I've priced out auto-trim at about $3500.

arrow76r

I found the auto-trim with GPSS to be a super help, particularly in the turbulence of mountain flying where up and down drafts are frequent. The original trim beeper seemed to be constantly yelling at me! The System 60 PSS is, in my opinion, well worth the AMUs!! Scott... your estimate is about what I paid considering price inflation over the several years since I had the installation done in my Arrow.

chadshart

Thank you everyone. Sounds like I’ll stick to all Garmin and I’ll be spending 3-4 AMUs on auto-trim. Flying over New Mexico was probably the worst for needing it but I fly across the Southern California desert a lot and it can get pretty bad out there in the heat.

chadshart

Anyone had any overheating issues? I’m not sure how accurate my gauge is but it seems to hang around 200-210 in a standard climb. I once took off out of Thermal and it was around 100 out and I had to level my climb for a while as my gauge went up to about 230-235. Seems like it heats up very easily. I’m not sure how normal it is as I didn’t do a lot of hot summer flying before this.

Scott Sherer

Hi Chad, we're talking oil temp? Do you have oil cooler winterization plates installed? Check your baffling at your next annual. Run rich when you need to and climb shallower.