D-ELKA

D-ELKA is a Piper Aircraft PA-28R-201, a single-engine piston aircraft. SkyMeter has tracked 214 flights totalling 189 hours of airtime via ADS-B. The most frequent segment is EDRF to EDFV. Service window in our records spans 454 days. Of those flights, 20 (9.3%) carry at least one detected incident: a go-around, unstable approach, stall warning, or runway excursion. The Piper Aircraft PA-28R-201 has a maximum takeoff weight of 2,650 lb, light wake category.

About the Piper Aircraft PA-28R-201

The Piper PA-28R-201 Arrow is the retractable-gear variant of Piper's ubiquitous Cherokee family, introduced in 1976 as the Arrow III with a tapered wing and later refined as the Arrow IV with a T-tail. It occupies a sweet spot in general aviation as an affordable step-up from fixed-gear trainers, offering pilots their first taste of complex aircraft operations (retractable landing gear, constant-speed propeller, and 200-horsepower Lycoming IO-360 engine) without the cost and complexity of a twin. The Arrow became a staple of flight schools and instrument training programs throughout North America and Europe, teaching generations of pilots gear-up procedures and the performance benefits of a cleaner airframe.

With a cruise speed around 135 knots and useful load near 900 pounds, the Arrow strikes a practical balance for cross-country flying and time-building. Its docile handling characteristics and forgiving stall behavior made it popular for commercial pilot training, while the retractable gear requirement for the commercial certificate ensured steady demand through the 1980s and 1990s. Production continued intermittently until 2009, with brief revivals, leaving a fleet of several thousand airframes still active worldwide.

The type remains a workhorse for owner-flown cross-country missions and as a cost-effective complex trainer where insurance and maintenance budgets favor singles over twins. SkyMeter has tracked flights across airframes and operators, with the largest observed operator.