: A Cherokee (my 180 at least)
: seems to have almost the same FPM climb whether it's empty
: with just the pilot, or full fuel and three adults on board.

: eh? maybe the 180 might not seem different, but a 140 (even with the
: 160hp) will performance noticably different lightly loaded in the winter
: and fully loaded in the summer.

Certainly... I've got a friend with a PA-28-150 (basically a PA-28-140 with a nice back seat). It's more or less the same
thing, although with a lower max gross. It seems to make a reasonable 500 fpm or so until it's loaded to a certain point... then it's
a pucker factor takeoff. All I'm saying is that I've rarely seen much more than 800 fpm or less than 400 fpm in my 180 no matter what
the load or DA (up to 4000').

-Cory

--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss, Ph.D., PPSEL-IA *
* Electrical Engineering *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************