Happy New Charger Owner

I just got my new 1973 Charger home. I purchased it in Washington, went down commercially to get my insurance-required instruction time in it (200 hour pilot with no high performance time) and flew it back to my home base in western Alaska. I now have about 30 hours in the plane and am thrilled with it. My impressions for people who may be interested in one:

Performance is not quite up there with a Cessna 182. Mine is weighted down with leather interior and avionics, with a 1600 lb empty weight, and the take-off roll is pretty long. I have started doing every take-off with 25 degrees of flaps - the ground roll is fairly short but the resulting climb is pretty slow. I flew it through Canada at gross, and some of those 3000' elevation strips seemed pretty short. I'm not sure how the cruise comes out - I have been cruising at 65% power and indicating around 105 -108 kts, but have noticed that my GPS indicates a "built-in tailwind." I consistently show a groundspeed above 110 kts, even at low altitude and after reversing directions. My guess is that the airspeed is inaccurate. I have knots-2U wheelpants - not sure they are worth it, and don't like not being able to see the brakes and hub.

As a former 172 pilot, I am amazed by the ability to climb at 800 fpm at gross RIGHT NOW. This comes in handy when doing the sort of low-level mountain flying required in western Alaska. A 172 at gross (which it always seems to be at) must be coaxed and finessed through passes and over cloud layers. Not the case with this Charger.

I have been cruising most of the time at 2400 and 21" - changing the manifold pressure for 65% power based on altitude. Once the weather was nice enough to take it to 10,500 and cruise, which it did without hesitation. At 10,500 I had a ground speed of 110 kts and a fuel burn of 11.5 gph. Most of the time at 2,000 - 5,000 feet I have been getting similar speeds at 12.5 - 13.5 gph. I haven't experimented with pulling the RPM back except briefly when I wanted to try 55% power - I like the way the plane feels at 2400.

I read the Lycoming manual on this site prior to flying the plane, and have been leaning aggressively, either to peak or best power, depending on need. The plane just doesn't fly well full-rich. As soon as power is reduced after take-off it gets rough if not leaned. I keep it well rich of peak for climb but lean more upon reaching my altitude.

The range on this plane is its best feature. I ran into a variety of bad weather on my journey, and always felt comfortable knowing that I had enough fuel to try getting through it for two hours, return to my starting point if I couldn't make it. My longest leg in Canada was 4:15 - I was at economy cruise and landed with a comfortable 1:30 of fuel left.

On my last leg I got some carb ice - the carb heat cleared it out almost immediately. I love my fuel flow gauge - it showed my a definite decrease in fuel flow that preceded the roughness as I developed carb ice. I found it to be a comforting addition to my engine scan.

My instructor wanted me to do approaches at 100 mph, but I'm not sure what he based that on. I found that at that speed I had to lose too much speed on flare. At 80 mph and gross weight the plane scarcely flares - with a little more practice I should be able to plant it without any float or bounce. Anyone have any good speeds that they use?

My plan is to build time in this thing and upgrade to a Cherokee 6, but right now I'm so enamored with it that I can't imagine upgrading.