No Nuts For You Just the facts Jack
The most maligned are the Turbo ARROW IV'S. This is usually by people that flew one "once" or knew of someone that flew one. First some facts. I have 150 Hours in Cessnas of some sort which include Cutlas RG's & Cardinal RG's, so I did not grow up on Low Wings. Fact number 2 I have 60+ Hours in Mooneys from Executives, to 231, and 252's. And I have over 100 hours in Arrow's, Archers, Warriors and turbo saratogas. So I can't be accused of being Biased due to lack of trying other things. I Now own a TURBO ARROW IV with a MERLIN Wastegate. and have put about 80 Hours in 6 months of ownership. Facts... Nothing out there can haul as much as fast and be legal as the Turbo Arrow that doesnt cost 5 times as much to buy. different airplanes can beat it in different catagories but they don't have the full package of capability. With 50 Gallons of Fuel I can load 707 lbs of payload and fly from Atlanta to Houston at 12,500 ft at 160 kts at 12 GPH with legal reserves. You try that with a Mooney and you will have enough Gas to fly an hour or so. The Merlin wastegate is what makes the Turbo Arrow the capable machine it is. It didn't add much weight at all and it changed critical altitude to 18,000 from 12,000. That means it is significantly faster in all regimes. at 75% I see about 147 kts down low after 10,000 I see about 154 knts and at 12,000 it starts to top 160 kts. Now thats not nearly as fast as a Mooney with the same amount of GAS but I am hauling way more payload. As for handling... I actually prefer the T-TAIL as it is more stable at altitude in Turns. As for takeoff I don't notice any real difference in my Arrow IV and the Arrow II I rented and flew to Tennessee to check out My IV. I flew them back to back within minutes of each other. Stabilators require a hefty pull unless you are setting trim to nose up past neutral. I got an Arrow 2 up to 85 MPH with neutral trim and it never lifted off till I pulled back. Certainly not like a Cessna that just flys off the runway by itself. The CFI doing my biannual can attest to that. For Me the Arrow IV was the perfect plane. Because I am 260 LBS and most of my friends are over 200 lbs. I loved Mooneys when I was young and 100 lbs lighter and all my friends were twigs. In My T Arrow IV I can have me and my son In the Front seat (total 490 lbs) throw the full 72 Gallons usable in the plane Add 70 lbs of luggage And still have plenty of performance and range to go to Denver from Houston non-stop and never be close to being outside of W&B. Or Reserves. Run Those Numbers with some other planes at that weight.