Flying a circuit at Orcas Island in the JustFlight PA-28 Arrow III in Microsoft Flight Simulator

[@jdun3712]

Nice video! You flew right over my old house. Lived in a beach house just down from the airport for a couple years. Cool place, probably one of the more stunning places I’ve been to

[@Sebastopolmark]

Thanks Jonathan. Nice circuit and plane. Good engine sounds as well. WOW, Petaluma and now Orcas Island. I spent a week on O C at Deer Harbor watching the sea planes land at the marina. Thank again! !! !!!

[@Frankestein01nl]

Welcome to JB-Airlines, where our motto for today is: " What comes up, must come down" Thanks for a good video, Jonathan, nice work!

[@ggjjabc]

Kudos to you for the great video and the very nice and useful checklist. It made me curious about you and made me check out your other videos in YT. I'll be watching some of them. I'll also checkout the other resources you listed. Thank you.

[@fauxflights77]

Nice! I love it up there. Just did a leg from Tacoma Narrows past Friday Harbor to Pitt Meadows in BC on Saturday and it was gorgeous. Love that area. Friday Harbor is a great little Asobo strip and that runway has some awkward sloped qualities that always give me trouble. Its a fun little spot up there by Orca. Cheers and thanks for the vid!

[@fauxflights77]

Also I hate that little switch for the tablet .Hardest thing in the world to mouse over in VR.

[@ellonysman]

Is FauxFlights your tag? I fly over to this airport occasionally or down Seattle way...or Victoria or Powell river. I am based out of Abbotsford. (BCsimPilot)

[@fauxflights77]

@@ellonysman Yes indeed, Fauxflights is my gamer tag.

[@zoe..d]

Your planned circuit track... what speeds were you aiming for? A stop watch for after your rate 1 turns with each leg would help immensly with tightening up the track and avoiding early initial turns. So many mins:secs @ x KIAS would help in planning. Only have to handle crosstrack on the fly. Great video! Fun aircraft to zip around in :)

[@GaryMCurran]

A couple of comments. Now, I haven't flown an Arrow in 40-some years. However, it's such a simple airplane to fly. We used to fly it out of an 1,900' strip (Waterford, in Connecticut, which is long gone) 1. You don't use the Pitot Heat unless you need it. So, turning it on on the ground like you did is a very good way of it overheating and burning up. You'd only turn it on if the ambient temperature was in the lower 40s F in the air, or there was precipitation. 2. Flaps. You'd never use flaps for take-off in the airplane unless you were doing a short field take-off. For a normal take-off, flaps are up. 3. Your pattern was huge! If you had an engine out, you'd have a real issue getting back to the airport. The pattern you flew would have been more for a jet or larger business-class turboprop. You shouldn't really be more than a mile or so laterally from the airport in a light GA airplane like this. 4. On the run-up, you also should have exercised the prop by moving the propeller control back and forth a couple of times. It circulates the oil in the prop hub and it shows that the prop will change pitch as required. I haven't had the opportunity to upgrade to the latest version of Flight Sim, and I'll probably wait now until FS2024 comes out. Need a new computer, three new monitors, flight controls, etc., and money is too tight right now to purchase any of that, so I'm waiting. However, I felt really at home in this simulation of the Arrow. By the way, yes, all the Piper PA-28 aircraft were called 'Cherokee' at one point or another, the PA-28-140, PA-28-180, PA-28-180R/200R. Eventually, when they went to the tapered wing version, which the Arrow III is one of, they dropped the 'Cherokee' moniker. The Cherokee 140 became the PA-28-151 Warrior, the Cherokee 180 became the PA-28-181 Archer and the Arrows just dropped the Cherokee name.

[@jonbeckett]

Thank you for the great feedback - I was just following the POH - which had nowhere near as much detail as I added. I've noticed a few times actually - that the pilot operating handbooks sometimes have lots of detail - and sometimes not. I think the Cessna ones typically mention checking the temperature to use pitot heat. The Piper one (in this case) doesn't. Also there's no mention of exercising the prop either :) (again, the Cessna POHs commonly have that). The circuit was big purely to fit in the nearby features - if it had been a real pattern, as you say - I would have been much tighter :) Thanks once again for the great feedback - I'll incorporate it into the checklist :)

[@garywilliams6778]

Hello, I am another Gary that will echo and chime in on Gary’s comments ☺️He’s absolutely correct about flying the pattern. It was too far out and too low on base to final. A couple of good references for flying the pattern is that the runway should be cutting your wing in half on a low wing plane or if it’s a high wing plane, the runway should be cutting the strut in half. I know initially you make think it’s close but you want to be able to safely make the runway if your power goes out. As far as altitude goes, for those vasi/papi lights remember these sayings. Red over white is alright, you’re on the correct glide scope path. White over white, you’re out of sight(too high). Red over red means you’re dead( too low as in won’t make the runway if your engine quits). I had the wonderful fortune of being one of the beta testers for this little baby because I too, as the other Gary, have real world time in an Arrow III. They tweaked this little baby until they got it right. That thud you feel on touchdown is correct. Along with Gary’s comments regarding cycling the prop on run up, I have a couple of more. As soon as you get the gear up, you want to go 25 squared. That is 25 on manifold pressure and 25 on the rpm’s. Remember this for reducing power ( back in black giving reference to the AC/DC song from the 80s) meaning the throttle (black knob)gets pulled back first to 25” manifold pressure, then the prop (blue knob)gets pulled back to 2500 rpm’s. Once you’re at traffic pattern altitude or cruising altitude it’s then 24/25. The throttle gets pulled back to 24 inches of manifold pressure. Continue to reduce throttle as needed while in the pattern for reducing speed with pitch and power. The final thing regarding the prop is once you turn base to final you want to push that prop all the way forward to have maximum power in case you need to do a go-around. I hope that helps😀

[@antonioiozzi291]

100% correct what you write. Nice, simple to fly aircraft, almost disappeared here in continental Europe but still relatively popular un USA, south America and partially also UK where flyers seems to be more conservative then on the continent.

[@ggjjabc]

@@garywilliams6778 Nice quick tip on how far away one should be from the airport on the downwind leg. But, how will that tip work when you are on a plane in which you cannot see your wings? eg. a Learjet. Also, on the LittleNavMap (@the 1 minute mark in the video) there is a route shown for the left pattern. The route shown is way too wide. Any idea why? Thank you.

[@chrisvowell2890]

@@ggjjabcOn the latest version of Little Navmap (3.0.5), you can adjust traffic patterns to meet requirements, A/C type, preferences, etc. (My landings in MSFS are still so 'hit and miss' that I prefer extended d'winds and finals!)

[@ellonysman]

Did y'all know that Steve Miller, yes that Steve Miller, use to own a nice estate on the island just east across the water from Friday Harbour in the SanJaun Islands. Its possibly still shown on KZbin...lovely little place

[@jnbennett6496]

wow, thx 4 the info ellonysman, i will check it out on youtube, he sure picked a great place to live

[@antonioiozzi291]

With all the wonderful US livery avalaible for the JF Pipers why do you use a british one for flying in PNW?

[@Only_Aviation777]

I love the just flight arrow I fly it a lot

[@ironmanballer4868]

Just an idea a rather interesting video would be to learn how to work that gps 100 it’s an interesting unit

[@sidplays77]

I always found the just flight arrow flew like a brick in the sim, compare it to other top quality GA like the A2A Comanche it’s a night and day difference.

[@jonbeckett]

Yep - it does - I just wrote up the checklist however, so was validating that it works :)

[@industryguy07]

for someone who already has the carenado arrow II, are the justflight arrows worth it? should i get the full pack?

[@wowyummyyy]

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