So I put everything back on to weigh the aircraft. The build manual says to put the level on the bottom of the cabin floor. Hmm. Kinda hard to get there now, so I used the top of the floor. I got my weights, she gained 21lbs, and did the math. I noticed on the original form he used the lower longerons under the seat to level. Hmmm. I also noticed his weights for pilot and passenger were fairy tales. So I did my math with real weight numbers and found I will max out at 1050lbs with about 10 gallon of gas and two people.
I learned to fly in 1982 in my dad's Piper Vagabond. He sold it a couple years later in 1984. He recently had a bad moment in his VW powered Corby and started looking for another Vagabond. He had one deal go south then Googled the old N number. Long story short, he bought the original Pa17 back! I just had to go home to visit. We went up for an hour on Sunday and Monday I was taking off and doing better landings than he could! I got over three hours and 12 take offs and landings. I had not flow this plane in 34 years, or anything in 30 years, and it seemed like I flew last week.