I was thinking about adding one of these to my hangar but at $50 a whack, I can only afford one.  
Can anyone tell me what the differences are between the various arrows, turbos and warriors?

Is there a consensus on which is the best to own if you are only getting one?

Thanks 

Edited August 6, 20214 yr by mick92627

warrior is the slowest. No constant speed prop, non retractable gear (similar to a 172). Arrows are a step up. Constant speed prop, retractable gear. Turbo arrow is another step up. IF I only had to choose one it would be the turbo.

Warrior

As above, a training aircraft, fixed gear, fixed pitch prop, 160hp.  A better plane for real low and slow, circuits and short hops. IMHO has nicer hand flying characteristics than both of the Arrows, as the latter have heavy engines which affect the flight dynamics (and JF have depicted this well).  The Arrows take some teasing off the runway, then tend to leap off. They're slightly hard to manage in circuits too and correct trimming is critical.   The Warrior is a common-or-garden PA28, with an engine and CoG more in line with the original PA28 design intentions.

Arrow

Adds the complexity of retractable gear and a constant speed prop. Faster (but not 'fast' as such!). 200hp. See above, re: flight handling characteristics.

Turbo Arrow

The same as the Arrow but with the addition of a turbo charger. The Turbo doesn't add net power to the standard 200hp, so take off and initial climb feel very similar.   The Turbo Arrow maintains it's power well up at altitude though, so it's the best choice for higher altitude (>7000 AGL) IFR touring.  A little care needs to be taken on take off, to ensure the engine is not overboosted, but there's a light on the dash that helps with this, and the engine has a wastegate, so you have to work hard to kill the engine.  The Turbo Arrow is more exciting on paper, but is rather 'clunky' in hand flying (again JF have depicted this well).  The engine is even heavier and correct trim use is absolute critical on climb and approach - or else you'll be pulling some serious pounds on the yoke!

I have the Turbo Arrow and the Warrior, and I prefer the Warrior, because (a) it's nicer to fly IMHO, and (b) I prefer other planes for the higher altitude, IFR work (like the G36 with the improvement mod).

Well they are all PA28 Cherokee so they have a lot in common of course

basic summary -

• Warrior II - basic fixed gear fixed prop trainer and general GA, best of the bunch for circuits and low and slow, forgiving plane with no vices, get this one if you tend to do long trips in things like the PBM and just want something to toss around, do a few circuits and look at the scenery. This is the sweetest and easiest to fly down low and potter about in
• Turbo Arrow III/IV - Constant Speed prop and retractable gear, the Turbo III is a particularly nice aircraft - not as easy to fly and land as the Warrior it is easy to overboost and break the engine, but above 10,000 feet really shines, much faster than the Warrior and will happily operate up around 20,000 feet or more, get this one if you want something more versatile that can do low and slow but also handles mountains and longer trips that take forever in a Warrior. The most versatile of the JF P28.
• Arrow III -  Constant Speed prop and retractable gear, basically the Turbo Arrow without the Turbo. Performance wise faster then the Warrior but slower at altitude than the Turbo.  These are a good option in real life as they give good performance without the cost per hour and maintenance issues of a Turbo. In game, the cost per hour is not a consideration. Buy this one only if you are collecting a set as it offers a good discount (see below) or you fly a real one.  Nice to have for variety in a collection but not the first choice if you only want the one aircraft.

Discounts - 

• buy Arrow III get a 66% discount on Turbo Arrow and 25% discount on Warrior II
• buy Turbo Arrow and get 25% discount on Warrior II (does not stack with Arrow discount)

Basically if you must get just the one , Warrior II if you are only low and slow or Turbo Arrow III/IV if you want some versatility .

 

Warrior II

 

Turbo Arrow III

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 20214 yr by Glenn Fitzpatrick

Which one you get depends very strongly on what you want it for.  Others have detailed the differences on the types so I won't bother with that, and there are in fact many other PA28 variants in real life than just those three, so I'll point out what is probably the main criteria for a choice of which to buy. 

If you are looking at replicating some real-world training or flying, the fixed-gear, lower-powered Warrior would be the best choice. These are still fairly commonly used as training aeroplanes and they are quite often found in shared ownership schemes at local airfield too, so it's probably more likely you'd fly one of these than an Arrow variant of the PA28. 

The Arrow is obviously a bit fancier what with its retractable gear and more powerful engine, but the Turbo Arrow additionally features some variants with a T-Tail as well as a conventional tail similar to all the other PA28 variants. This gives it some different flight characteristics, whereby the tail can have the airflow blocked a little bit at certain angles of attack, which can lead to some more challenging requirements for elevator input at the landing and take off stages, so given that you get both T-Tail and conventional tail variants in the Turbo Arrow version, this means you basically get two different aeroplanes in that package, which adds some variety to your sim and some more flying challenges to master both variants on landing and take off. Some people are less keen on the T-Tail PA28s in real life because of this different handling characteristic, although on the plus side, they do look a bit more 'cool' on the ramp, so not everyone subscribes to that viewpoint, but what also affects its popularity in the real world, is this in combination with the fact that a turbocharged aeroplane is more expensive to maintain and service. The plus side is that you get more performance though and of course in a sim version, you don't have to worry about maintenance costs.

So, it comes down to what you prefer/want. Do you want an honest and simpler 'circuit basher' which makes a pretty good tourer too, or do you want a flashier thing with bit more speed and a service ceiling and climb rate that would give you an aeroplane better suited to going over occasional bad weather? (not known icing conditions though, it has no de-icing boots). 

The normally-aspirated Arrow falls somewhere between the two of course, so it's another option, but if you have the choice of all three, then I would say that sort of falls between two stools in some respect unless you really want that type. if I was going to pick only one sim version and was looking for the best 'bang for buck', it would be the turbo version because you get both tail variants, however, performance and variety aside, I think the simpler, fixed-gear Warrior actually is the best of the bunch, it has a lot of character and it is very faithful to the real aeroplane in that regard. It's also more like the kind of thing us mere mortals get to fly for real.

You can't really go wrong with any of them though; they probably are the best payware GA singles you can get for MSFS at the moment.

I have all three, and I prefer Warrior, it is sweet to fly, not so sensitive to trimming as the others, feels lighter, and is a dream to land with as it floats out longer.

7 hours ago, mick92627 said:

I was thinking about adding one of these to my hangar but at $50 a whack, I can only afford one.  
Can anyone tell me what the differences are between the various arrows, turbos and warriors?

Is there a consensus on which is the best to own if you are only getting one?

Thanks 

They vary by $15 😀

I've got the regular Arrow (non Turbo) and the Warrior. The Warrior is my favourite actually despite being slower. Probably helps because I'm training in one in RL at the moment but the JF model is an extremely faithful representation of how the real one handles and sounds. It's just fun to throw around the circuit and the local area. The Arrow being a bit faster and with constant speed prop is a bit more of a handful and not as easy to manage speed.

Also worth pointing out that if you fancy the Arrows (which come with IMHO rather nasty panel colours) but prefer the far nicer black panel of the Warrior, there's are mods on Flightsim.to with a variety of panel colours for the Arrows.    I'm a bit boring I guess and much prefer the classic black PA28 panel, so use that on all 3 planes.

https://flightsim.to/file/15401/just-flight-piper-pa28r-turbo-arrow-iii-clean-grey-interior

https://flightsim.to/file/15399/just-flight-piper-pa28r-turbo-arrow-iv-clean-interior-mega-pack

(Don't be put off by the mod's title "Clean grey panel" each of the packs contains various panel colours to use).

Thank you all very much for responding.  This was EXACTLY what I was hoping for in my posting.  I'm a low and slow kinda guy, so I will go with the Warrior II.

In hindsight I wish I had just waited for the Turbo rather than purchasing the normally aspirated Arrow on release.  I currently have both now, but I'd rather have just the Turbo and Warrior.  Buying the Warrior now just seems like a waste of money to me...even though I'll probably just cave and buy it at some point lol.

At any rate, like everyone is saying...you can't really go wrong with any of the three.  Certainly my favorite aircraft to fly currently, along with the Bonanza Improvement mod, and the Mooney.

Edited August 6, 20214 yr by FakeWayne

11 hours ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

Well they are all PA28 Cherokee so they have a lot in common of course

 

That leads me to the question how do they compare to the A2A Piper Cherokee for P3D with regard to realism and quality ?

Probably no comparison. The A2A would win that hands down.

Edited August 6, 20214 yr by Bobsk8

Well if you were buying just the one A2A Piper it would probably be the Commanche 😄

To be honest though if the original poster is not particularly familiar with the various Cherokee variants the refinement they would get paying double the price for a study level A2A Cherokee (if such a thing existed in MSFS)  is not really going to be relevant.

 

Edited August 6, 20214 yr by Glenn Fitzpatrick

1 hour ago, FakeWayne said:

In hindsight I wish I had just waited for the Turbo rather than purchasing the normally aspirated Arrow on release.  I currently have both now, but I'd rather have just the Turbo and Warrior.  Buying the Warrior now just seems like a waste of money to me...even though I'll probably just cave and buy it at some point lol.

At any rate, like everyone is saying...you can't really go wrong with any of the three.  Certainly my favorite aircraft to fly currently, along with the Bonanza Improvement mod, and the Mooney.

The Warrior is better behaved and with no gear or prop to mess with a better beginner aircraft and fun down low. A bit limited once you get to situations where the clouds have rocks though takes forever to climb over them.

My three go-to aircraft in my MSFS logbook at present are the Cessna C140, Piper Warrior II and The Turbo Arrow III.  Though I must admit the Husky is getting a bit of flying time this last few days.  

I do not fly the Standard Arrow much these days but I feel I got my moneys worth in the first month or two after it came out,  especially considering the bundle price meant it only cost me 30% of full price compared to just getting the Turbo Arrow as a standalone.