Piper?

Jay, the issue that Mike (and others) are raising is not that your
Pathfinder is in any way short of perfection.

It's far from perfection. But it's the best compromise I've found in a
4-place, normally aspirated plane.

You made the statement that
full fuel payload is a critical performance indicator. I (and I believe
the
others) would argue that a vastly more useful metric is payload when
fueled
for a given mission.

That's a good measure, too -- but more useful?

Using your criterion, my old Warrior was just as good as my Pathfinder,
since, heck, all I had to do was "fuel for my mission" and go. Why lug
around all that extra fuel?

Unfortunately, doing so would occasionally leave very little margin for
error, since we would have to leave 25 gallons on the ground to fly to OSH,
fully loaded.

The ability to carry 6 hours of fuel (84 gallons) *and* a big payload is
what makes the Pathfinder special. When we were able to fly from the Grand
Canyon to Carlsbad, NM, non-stop -- with four people and luggage for a
week -- I knew we had the right plane.

Now, of course, you can argue that it is rare that anyone would make such a
long duration flight (especially with 2 kids, and no potty!) -- and you'd be
right. But it sure is nice to have the ability to do so. That's what
having a large "full-fuel payload" is all about.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"