Hi everyone,
New owner of a Turbo SP as of last month. I'm pretty familiar with the PA32 airframe, have owned several models previously, but have some new questions for the group:
1. Lowpresti and TurboPlus intercoolers and cowls. Are they worth it? Conservative back of the envelope calculations are that it would give me about 5% more speed for the same fuel flow/power setting, which in turn could save about $7000-8000 in fuel over the life of the engine. I wouldn't make the money back on that alone, but in cases where time is money, maybe it saves me a half hour here or there, or it saves me a fuel stop on a long trip, and that's attractive. Besides the cost, what are the downsides?
2. My plane still has the original pitot-based backup gear extension system. I'm a bit worried that I'll be doing some low speed maneuvering, especially at high altitude, will forget to set the override, and will have the gear drop unexpectedly. Anyone have any experience with removing this as per the old AD? How much would it cost? Any notable changes in W&B? Anyone remove it and wish that they hadn't?
3. Less of a Piper question and more of a general question here. The plane has ADS-B In+Out via a 530W and a 345, and it works great. I flew home with thunderstorms to the south of my route, able to see all of it via the radar pictures provided over ADSB. The plane still has a WX-10 Stormscope from its pre-ADSB days, and I'm starting to wonder if it's worth keeping it. I know that the radar picture from ADSB is delayed, but I'm not sure if I need real-time updates to weather that I intend to steer very clear of anyways. I might be able to get back 15lbs of useful load and the use of the glove box if I remove it. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
New owner of a Turbo SP as of last month. I'm pretty familiar with the PA32 airframe, have owned several models previously, but have some new questions for the group:
1. Lowpresti and TurboPlus intercoolers and cowls. Are they worth it? Conservative back of the envelope calculations are that it would give me about 5% more speed for the same fuel flow/power setting, which in turn could save about $7000-8000 in fuel over the life of the engine. I wouldn't make the money back on that alone, but in cases where time is money, maybe it saves me a half hour here or there, or it saves me a fuel stop on a long trip, and that's attractive. Besides the cost, what are the downsides?
2. My plane still has the original pitot-based backup gear extension system. I'm a bit worried that I'll be doing some low speed maneuvering, especially at high altitude, will forget to set the override, and will have the gear drop unexpectedly. Anyone have any experience with removing this as per the old AD? How much would it cost? Any notable changes in W&B? Anyone remove it and wish that they hadn't?
3. Less of a Piper question and more of a general question here. The plane has ADS-B In+Out via a 530W and a 345, and it works great. I flew home with thunderstorms to the south of my route, able to see all of it via the radar pictures provided over ADSB. The plane still has a WX-10 Stormscope from its pre-ADSB days, and I'm starting to wonder if it's worth keeping it. I know that the radar picture from ADSB is delayed, but I'm not sure if I need real-time updates to weather that I intend to steer very clear of anyways. I might be able to get back 15lbs of useful load and the use of the glove box if I remove it. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
