Hi All,
New member here! I've been flying and primarily renting Comanche 260B/Cs for quite some time now, but I'm in the process of acquiring a 1979 PA32-300 within the next month or two. Right now, she’s a bit of an “ugly duckling,” i have had the oppurtinity to rent it over the past year on certain mission instead of the Comanche, as my needs have shifted more toward load capacity and ease of access rather than speed.
Like many others, I’ve gone through most of the threads on speed mods, which have been really helpful. I know I won’t achieve Comanche-level speed, but every little bit helps, especially since most of my flights are 4–6-hour journeys and the fuel gets more expensive the further out i go . I’m leaning toward installing gap seals and some fancy pants.
A full repaint will be one of the first items—it feels like the sandpaper-like surface that’s passing for paint on the wings and airframe might be slowing her down!
I’m also planning to upgrade the panel with IFR capabilities, and I’m really liking Dynon at the moment, paired with some Garmin GPS/NAV/Comm equipment. Along with that, I’m considering refreshing the interior, maybe even getting new seats.
I’ll definitely post pictures of the process once we get started!
Now, I have a couple of questions for this amazing group:
New member here! I've been flying and primarily renting Comanche 260B/Cs for quite some time now, but I'm in the process of acquiring a 1979 PA32-300 within the next month or two. Right now, she’s a bit of an “ugly duckling,” i have had the oppurtinity to rent it over the past year on certain mission instead of the Comanche, as my needs have shifted more toward load capacity and ease of access rather than speed.
Like many others, I’ve gone through most of the threads on speed mods, which have been really helpful. I know I won’t achieve Comanche-level speed, but every little bit helps, especially since most of my flights are 4–6-hour journeys and the fuel gets more expensive the further out i go . I’m leaning toward installing gap seals and some fancy pants.
A full repaint will be one of the first items—it feels like the sandpaper-like surface that’s passing for paint on the wings and airframe might be slowing her down!
I’m also planning to upgrade the panel with IFR capabilities, and I’m really liking Dynon at the moment, paired with some Garmin GPS/NAV/Comm equipment. Along with that, I’m considering refreshing the interior, maybe even getting new seats.
I’ll definitely post pictures of the process once we get started!
Now, I have a couple of questions for this amazing group:
- Wingtips: I’d love to upgrade the wingtips, but most of the mods seem to be for 1979 and later models. Has anyone done this with an engineering order? If I can’t go with wingtips, I’m thinking of installing AeroLED Pulsars with strobes and a 19,000-lumen landing light at the front.
- Fuel Tank Fairings: Does anyone have these installed? I’m curious about performance feedback and whether they need to be removed during the 100-hour or annual inspection.
- Seat Configuration: I currently have a 6-place seating configuration. Is it possible to install club seating in my model, given that I’m planning to refresh the interior? I couldn’t find much info on this in the forum.
