Piper Wheel Pants Question

[Brian Sponcil]

As you may or may not know, Piper changed their wheel pants (at least on the
Warrior) around 1978. IMHO the later model pants are quite a bit
nicer/better than the old ones. Now the question is, I own a '75 Warrior.
Can I legally put the later model pants on it? If so, what's required in
terms of paperwork? 337? Log book entry? $1500 in unmarked bills to the
local FSDO?


-Brian
N33431
Iowa City, IA

[Martin Kosina]

> Can I legally put the later model pants on it? If so, what's required in
> terms of paperwork? 337? Log book entry? $1500 in unmarked bills to the
> local FSDO?

Not telling the local FSDO ?

Seriously, I doubt this needs any kind of approval, if the parts are
Piper manufactured (or OEM) and the model years in question share the
same type certificate, I wouldn't worry about it too much...

[paul k. sanchez]

>As you may or may not know, Piper changed their wheel pants (at least on the
Warrior) around 1978. IMHO the later model pants are quite a bit nicer/better
than the old ones. Now the question is, I own a '75 Warrior. Can I legally put
the later model pants on it? If so, what's required in terms of paperwork?
337? Log book entry? $1500 in unmarked bills to the local FSDO?
>
>
>-Brian
>N33431
>Iowa City, IA
>
Brian:
Strongest suggestion at a lesser dollars is the wheel pants by
www.speedpants.com. Located at Daytona Beach. The very same company that has
done laminar flow systems and power flow systems.

You'll be quite happy with the 9.12 knot increase from no wheel pants, and a
6.95 increase over the old style Piper wheel pants.

www.speedpants.com
Tests on PA28's show an average cruise speed gain of 10.5 mph over bare
wheels...or about an 8 M.PH. gain over the original Piper pants.

Rate of climb and glide are improved and fuel savings of up to 1.5 gallons per
hour are also obtainable!

Price: $2175


paul k. sanchez, cfii-mei
on eagles’ wings
2011 south perimeter road, suite g
fort lauderdale, florida 33309-7135
305-389-1742 wireless
954-776-0527 fax
954-345-4276 home/fax

[G.R. Patterson III]

Brian Sponcil wrote:
>
> As you may or may not know, Piper changed their wheel pants (at least on the
> Warrior) around 1978. IMHO the later model pants are quite a bit
> nicer/better than the old ones. Now the question is, I own a '75 Warrior.
> Can I legally put the later model pants on it?

If they weigh the same and Piper did not change the type certificate, you can put
the new ones right on. If they don't weigh the same and the type certificate did
not change, you need a logbook entry and new W&B. If the type certificate changed
(which I doubt), then you need an STC. All this assumes they will fit - if you
need to change the backing plate or make other mods to get them to fit, best
converse with your local FSDO.

I once owned a 1969 Cessna 150 that had later model wingtips and wheel pants. Not
even a logbook entry to show when that had been done.

George Patterson
Great discoveries are not announced with "Eureka!". What's usually said is
"Hummmmm... That's interesting...."

[Jay Masino]

>
>>As you may or may not know, Piper changed their wheel pants (at least on the
>>Warrior) around 1978. IMHO the later model pants are quite a bit
>>nicer/better than the old ones. Now the question is, I own a '75 Warrior.
>>Can I legally put the later model pants on it?
>
> If they weigh the same and Piper did not change the type certificate, you can put
> the new ones right on. If they don't weigh the same and the type certificate did
> not change, you need a logbook entry and new W&B. If the type certificate changed
> (which I doubt), then you need an STC. All this assumes they will fit - if you
> need to change the backing plate or make other mods to get them to fit, best
> converse with your local FSDO.
>

Coincindentally, I just asked my mechanic about this recently. I was
looking at a pair of later model wheel pants on Ebay, and wondered the
same thing. He said that the later model wheel pants mount differently
(different backing plates), and that you couldn't do it with just a
logbook entry. You'd need a 337 and field approval.

--- Jay

[Martin Kosina]

> Strongest suggestion at a lesser dollars is the wheel pants by
> www.speedpants.com. Located at Daytona Beach. The very same company that has
> done laminar flow systems and power flow systems.
>
> You'll be quite happy with the 9.12 knot increase from no wheel pants, and a
> 6.95 increase over the old style Piper wheel pants.

Well, from their own desciption, it looks like the difference between
'78 style Piper pants (what he would get with item #2449226814) and
the Speed Pants is only 3mph ?

[paul k. sanchez]

>Well, from their own desciption, it looks like the difference between '78
style Piper pants (what he would get with item #2449226814) and the Speed Pants
is only 3mph ?
>

Good evening Martin:
Unless I read his post incorrectly I thought he had a pre-1978 ship and wanted
to install the post-1978 part number. A minor issue of getting an STC for the
installation or if you are really lucky a FSDO that would accept a 337 on the
installation.

The cost of the original Piper part (post-1978) of course is much higher than
the Speed Pants product.

The reasons why Speed Pants is doing so well is because of the those 2 issues.
They have a better design pre or post-1978, cheaper, and already have an STC
for the pa28-140,150,160, 151, 161, 180, 181 product line.

But of course Martin if I am incorrect in some of the write up I'd like to hear
from you on it.



paul k. sanchez, cfii-mei
on eagles’ wings
2011 south perimeter road, suite g
fort lauderdale, florida 33309-7135
305-389-1742 wireless
954-776-0527 fax
954-345-4276 home/fax

[Martin Kosina]

(paul k. sanchez) wrote in message >...
> >Well, from their own desciption, it looks like the difference between '78
> style Piper pants (what he would get with item #2449226814) and the Speed Pants
> is only 3mph ?
> >
>
> Good evening Martin:
> Unless I read his post incorrectly I thought he had a pre-1978 ship and wanted
> to install the post-1978 part number. A minor issue of getting an STC for the
> installation or if you are really lucky a FSDO that would accept a 337 on the
> installation.

I think the argument was that Piper or OEM parts for airplanes with
the same TC are interchangeable, but if the attachment is different,
its a moot point, you are right. I suppose you could find the right
post-'78 backing plates, but then where do you stop ;-)

[PaulaJay1]

In article >,
(Martin Kosina) writes:

>You'll be quite happy with the 9.12 knot increase from no wheel pants, and a
>> 6.95 increase over the old style Piper wheel pants.
>
>Well, from their own desciption, it looks like the difference between
>'78 style Piper pants (what he would get with item #2449226814) and
>the Speed Pants is only 3mph ?

My understanding re most of the speed enhancing is that they say "UP TO" bla
bla increase. That is, they guarantee no more but you can get less!

In flying without the nose pant on my 79 Archer, I can see no difference in
speed, climb or handling.

Chuck

[Aaron Coolidge]

Somebody wrote:

:>You'll be quite happy with the 9.12 knot increase from no wheel pants, and a
:>> 6.95 increase over the old style Piper wheel pants.
:>

Then, Chuck wrote:

: In flying without the nose pant on my 79 Archer, I can see no difference in
: speed, climb or handling.

In flying without the 3 old-style wheel pants on my '68 Cherokee 180, I
have found zero speed difference. According to the "Speed Pants" web site,
I should find (9.12 - 6.95 = 2.17) 2.17 knots or roughly 3 MPH of increased
speed. This makes me suspicious of any and all speed mod claims.

Spending > $2500 to get a zero to 9 knot speed improvement seems like
an unwise use of $$$ to me, so I have not gone this route. I will save
the > $2500 for my Turbo Mooney....
--
Aaron Coolidge (N9376J), as seen on Jay's website.