"Jim Burns" writes:

As far as expenses, we've been flying ours at around 165mph at reduced
power settings and have found the fuel burn to be around 22 gallons per
hour, total. Push everything to the wall, lean it out, and 25-28 gallons is
typical at about 200mph.

Wow! I wish I got that. I'm more like 32 GPH then. (I'm still working on
the art of leaning a turbo'd plane.)

Most of our partners and our family members are small people so filling
the seats, the tanks and the baggage isn't a problem, so we typically load
and go.

Yeah, it's a luxury not to be understated.

We're looking at replacing the bench seat in the rear with two captains
chairs, then extending the rear baggage compartment into the tail section.
This will make a cavernous rear baggage area with the rear seats removed.

I want to hear more about this. I have been interested in this for years
and a need for it appeared again recently. I'd especially like to be able
to replace the bench seat with a single seat so that I can seat five and
still have access to the rear baggage.

Thanks for the info!

--kyler