One flew in from Los Angeles a few weeks ago. DA was around 9500'

The owner said he loved the plane and its systems, but wish it had more speed.

The Cruise tables show it to be slow compared to older Tin Twins like mine..

The performance tables show it to have 200 fpm OEI climb when the DA gets up there. This is probably the most important thing in the Desert Southwest.

You're only going to see 185kts. @ 10,000' std day, 95% power @ 19.3 gph. Anything lower and you're going slower.

Had an interesting experience with an almost new '62 at Leadville CO elev 9934' at the Colorado Pilots Assn mtn flying course recently.

I'd guess in an effort to forstall engine stoppage the idle power is increased as you go up in
altitude.

The CFI and captain landed at Leadville. They couldn't get the plane stopped because the power was still around 20%! The would let up on the brakes and the airplane would accelerate. They wound up blowing a tire trying.

We replaced the tire to get the airport open again. We suggested starting the plane to make sure it would start at that altitude. It did, but it would not pass self checks that would allow
it to takeoff.

Last I heard the factory was going to send someone out with a cheater card to fly it out.

A corner case to be sure. The captain and CFI reported that the airplane had performed
splendidly at the other high altitude stops they made. And it was a thing of beauty....
it had Cleveland brakes like many planes but the axle was a beautifully ground hunk of steel
that I hated to even touch with a wrench!

BH