Can any recommend a good Piper Cherokee or Arrow ?

[garydpoole 183]

HiI generally fly the PMDG 737NG but recently received a trial flying lesson from my wife as a birthday present. The lesson will be in either a Piper Cherokee or Piper Arrow.As i don't know much about GA's available for FS2004, i was wandering if anyone could recommend a good freeware model of either of the above that has an accurate flight-model and semi-decent virtual cockpit so that i can get some practice in before the lesson !!!RegardsGary

[oldbear 33]

GaryHere's my advice, for what it's worth. Forget about FS. Instead, switch off your computer, turn your chair around and practice staring out of the window. On my introductory lesson I made the classic mistake of spending too much time looking at the instruments, when I should have been looking outside for visual references during turns etc. Mind you it was a wonderful experience and I signed up for some more.I don't know of any freeware aircraft, but if you want to get a proper idea of what the cockpit will look like you really ought to get the Dreamfleet Archer. I should imagine its layout is very similar to the Cherokee. I know it's payware but it's regarded as one of the best. Final word of warning - you'll get hooked..!RegardsIan

[garydpoole 183]

Sounds good advice ian...Fortunately, as the planes's a 4 seater, i'm "employing" the services of a photographer friend and my father to take as many pictures as possible of anything that looks vaguely familiar, as, like youself, i'm sure to miss too much at the time.RegardsGary

[otterspotter 8]

There's probably no better Cherokee than Dreamfleet's Archer, but that's payware.Of the free stuff, I find Rien Cornelissen's Warrior very likable (warrior6.zip here in Avsim library). The only problem I had with it was the tendency to turn left when straight and level, so I had to balance it with fuel loading. Other than that, it's a very neat plane. Apparently Rien also made a nice Arrow, but I don't know the zip name. Be advised, Arrow is a complex category aircraft (retractable gear and constant speed propeller).Hope this helps.M.