I have a 1964 172E with the Contl 145 hp O300-D. I normally fly out of a 3000 ft paved strip 40 minutes away from my house but I was just offered a hangar at a 2700 ft turf strip (50 ft trees at both ends) just two miles away! Ive flown in and out of it with my old 172m (160 hp) but not yet with the 172E that I picked up not long ago. Im going to fly into it later on in the week but any thoughts about the performance capability of the smaller 145 hp vs the 160 hp would be appreciated. Its a fairly well groomed strip. No dirt, stones or gravel. Im thinking of just taking out the rear seat to improve performance as I never really use it anyway!

Work a few loads out of your paved strip at different DA's and weights and see how you're doing at the 2,000 ft mark. Not exact because of the different runway surface, but close enough to get a general idea.

Gump

How is it going Terry? Gump was spot on. That is the way we acclimate crop dusters. We put a few more gallons in the hopper until it gets interesting. The lower you can stand over the trees helps keep the wing flying good. More than ten feet over the trees is wasting that good buoyant feeling of the wing having plenty of air over it.