I’ve had the gambit. Wiring issues on the switches not lighting up the gear indicators, a failed bulb, a power pack failure, something else electrical that prevented the pump from working. The last one wouldn’t retract the gear. Every other issue was solved with the red knob after slowing below 90kias (if I remember the procedure correctly) and shaking the airplane.

I think the 88 was a 155ktas airplane and the 01 was a 165ktas airplane. Both flew about the same, but I liked the 01 cockpit panel better. It didn’t have nearly the UL and the seat had this bar that poked across your lower back so it wasn’t as comfortable.

It sure was an adventure! And hi Luc! When you coming out this way again?

I’m not ready to show off the progress yet, but we have this thing very close to dialed in.

We ran high power, LOP, smooth and fast. I have two more injectors to tweak, a small change in timing, and I’m still deciding on fine wires. Tonights flight was promising, and WELL beyond the numbers you mentioned. :thumbup:

She is a fast girl for sure!

My goal was to make her as fast as an NA Bonanza. Now my goal is to make her as fast as an A36TC. I sent Matt a video last night of our progress. Lets just say its going well...

I decided to give a local mechanic a shot.

I haven't worked with anyone but John Fisher since 2005 for A&P stuff. He is outstanding in every respect.

I relocated to a small mountain town and thought, maybe I should try the local guy since its a new-to-me plane and he is right on the field. He came highly recommended as a good mechanic with great attention to detail.

We met and he got me right in.

The first order of business was new spark plugs that I already had coming from the Aircraft Spruce. After the first leg, I ordered them from the Hampton Inn in Monroe knowing they were needed. The ignition was struggling LOP.

I also needed to deal with this gear issue. The mechanic tracked down a couple of relays for the gear, as I suspected they were hanging up. I might as well replace both, I thought. The relays were cheap (like $60 each), and Piper has superseded the old style with a new design that grounded the relays via wire vs. the case. I suspect they had intermittent grounding issues/gear problems with the original design.

The MT prop cranks easily, but the battery was still weak. Time for a new sealed Concorde.

That erroneous #6 CHT had to be dealt with. The first order of business was to swap #6 and #5 and hope the problem didn't move. If it did, I'd be looking at a BIG problem with that cylinder.

After the first round of maintenance I test flew the plane and discovered the problem had continued to read out on #6, meaning the probe or wiring was the issue and not the cylinder. We needed to order some parts.

During my test flight...I discovered one of the brand new Tempests seemed to be dead on arrival. The next morning I would go to the hangar early to pull it and ohm it out.

Cue music of doom....

Loved what you did with the V35. Looking forward to this one. I have a lot of fond memories growing up in our family's Saratoga.


This particular Saratoga's Lycoming isn't compatible with Lopresti's modern looking cowl with 2 round inlets, is it? Makes it look like a newer model PA32R

I'm sneak-peeking here...but the cowl is part of the turbo-plus intercooler mod. It looks fantastic.

The stock Saratoga cowl is.... well, shall we say not exactly the homecoming queen. THAT cowl is bad-ass looking. I’m no aeronautical engineer but I suggest, no wonder there is a B-I-G difference in performance!

No need to rehash what happened next. Sara bit me. See the other thread for details.

After the "incident", restoring the exterior was underway. My buddy Gilbert is an expert aircraft detailer who handles a lot of the high-end stuff in the valley. I had him scheduled for the next morning to come up and clean, clay, polish, and polymer coat the paint.

The great news was that the paint was in excellent condition. It didn't look great when I got the plane, but after taking down the top layer there was still plenty of healthy paint underneath.

We used Flightshield polymer as usual. The finish product speaks for itself. The paint will need touch up in several areas, which I will address at annual. Its in fine condition overall so new paint is out of the question.

The windows polished nicely with 210 plastic polish. They look new all-around.

(don't mind the hangar pics...we are in the middle of relocating :) )

The next step was the boots.

I used Real Clean Products kit this time. After the stripper, I hit a few areas with light MEK. The rubber was EXCELLENT thanks to the boots having been replaced not long ago (when they resealed the wet wing tanks.

After the stripper comes water/soap, BFG Agemaster UV protectant, and 3-4 light coats of wax.

I didn't have the conductive edge cement at the time, so I had to strip the edges again with alcohol to do the edges the next day and then re-polish.

Finally she was starting to look up to par (on the exterior)

Looks very good. I didn’t realize the turbos of this era still had the lances upflow baffling. Interesting.

I have never wanted a Toga more!

Looking good. I'd ditch those sun curtains though... they look a little nasty. Maybe go bright white with them or remove entirely and go dark tint back there, would look awesome.