: Check the POH, I believe that Piper recommends that the fuel boost pump
: remain "on" during climb.

The stock Piper fuel pump is marginal, especially on 180hp engines. I talked
with Petersen at length about this when I bought his autofuel STC for our PA28/180.
Bottom line is to get the STC certified, they had to replace the electric fuel pump
due to "low fuel flow." My thought is the Piper system was marginal, but acceptable
in the early 1960's when the TC was issued. Now, it's not considered enough, so the
autofuel STC was required to "fix" it.

FWIW, my plane drops some fuel pressure when the electric boost is off as
well. In a full-power-on-stall, it reads about 0.5-1 psi without the electric on.
With, it comes right back where it belongs.

I believe it's not unsafe, although it *is* a bit unnerving.... just an
idiosyncracy of the plane.

-Cory


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* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
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