Aircraft Snapshot
1979 Piper PA-28RT-201 Arrow IV, serial 28R-7918211. Lycoming IO-360-C1C6, 200 hp, 620 hours since major overhaul against a 2,000-hour TBO. Third owner since 2021.
What You're Looking At
The Arrow IV is the T-tail one, and that shapes everything about how it is regarded. The T-tail is less effective at low speed until the aircraft is moving, which makes the takeoff rotation different from every other Arrow and gives the model a reputation it half deserves.
It is a capable retractable tourer: 137 KTAS on about 10 gallons an hour, four seats, and complex time that counts toward a commercial certificate.
Specific-Airframe Concerns
This aircraft has a gear-up landing in its history, in 2014, and that is the central fact of the purchase.
It was repaired under a Form 337 by a certified repair station, with a new prop, an engine teardown inspection, and belly skin replacement. The work was signed off and returned to service. The engine has since been overhauled again (2019), so the teardown engine is no longer the engine in the aircraft.
A repaired gear-up does not make this a bad aircraft. It makes it an aircraft with a documented event and a documented repair — which is a different thing from an aircraft with an undocumented one. What it does affect is resale: this will be disclosed at every future sale, and it should be priced accordingly.
Accident & Incident History
2014-08-22 — gear-up landing, Wichita KS. NTSB record, no injuries. Probable cause recorded as the pilot's failure to extend the landing gear; the gear warning horn was found functional on post-accident inspection. Substantial damage to the lower fuselage and propeller.
Matched on registration and serial number, so this is this airframe rather than a coincidence of registration — N-numbers are reused, and matching on the mark alone regularly attributes one aircraft's history to another.
No other accident or incident records.
Airworthiness Directives — This Airframe
- AD 2018-14-06 — fuel line clamp inspection, one-time [engine]
- AD 2011-19-51 — control cable inspection, recurring at 100 hours [airframe]
- AD 1995-26-13 — landing gear actuator, recurring [airframe · relevant here]
Note the third. It is routine on any Arrow, but on an aircraft with a gear-up in its past you want the compliance record for it read carefully rather than skimmed.
Known Model Issues
Gear system maintenance is the Arrow's defining ownership cost. The emergency extension system and the actuator both need exercising and inspecting, and deferred gear maintenance is the most common expensive surprise.
T-tail handling on rotation. Not a defect, but it demands transition training, and insurers will ask about it.
Corrosion at the wing spar in coastal aircraft. This one has lived in Kansas and Colorado, which is the good case.
Form 337 — Major Repairs & Alterations
1 Form 337 has been supplied for this aircraft.
2014-11-03 · Airframe repair Piper PA-28RT-201 s/n 28R-7918211
Replaced lower fuselage skins, forward and aft belly panels, and gear doors following gear-up landing. Propeller replaced with new. Engine subjected to sudden-stoppage teardown inspection per Lycoming SB 533B; findings within limits, engine reassembled and test run. Aircraft reweighed.
Approved for return to service by a certificated repair station on 2014-11-03. Signed: Midcontinent Aircraft Services, certificate M4CR882Y
⚠ A Form 337 records work that was performed and signed off. Take these to your prebuy and confirm the work against the logbooks and the airframe itself.
Fair Value Range
$74,000 – $96,000 — meaningfully below a comparable Arrow IV without the history.
A clean 1979 Arrow IV with this engine time asks $95,000 to $115,000. The gear-up is worth roughly a 15–20% discount, and that discount does not go away when you sell. Price it in on the way in, not on the way out.
The 2019 overhaul is genuine value: 620 hours on a fresh engine is the best part of this aircraft.
Prebuy Checklist
- The repair itself. Have the belly skins and gear doors inspected by someone who has seen a gear-up repair before, looking for corrosion and filiform under the paint at the repair seams.
- Gear rigging and emergency extension, exercised on jacks. Non-negotiable on this aircraft.
- AD 1995-26-13 compliance history in full, not just the current entry.
- The 2019 overhaul paperwork — who did it, and against what.
- Prop strike documentation from 2014 cross-checked against the current engine, which is a different engine.
Bottom Line
Worth pursuing, at the right price, with the right prebuy.
The gear-up was disclosed, repaired by a repair station, inspected properly, and the engine involved has since been replaced. That is close to the best version of this story. The aircraft is not damaged goods; it is a discounted aircraft with a known past.
Two things would change that. If the repair paperwork is incomplete, or if the belly shows corrosion at the repair seams, walk — a poorly repaired gear-up is a genuinely different proposition from a properly repaired one, and it is not always obvious from the outside.
Otherwise, this is a well-priced aircraft with a fresh engine, and the discount is real money in your pocket for a fault the previous owner already paid for.