Toobuilder
Well Known Member
My name is Michael and I have a weight problem...
...actually, my airplane does. According to the W&B info in my new Rocket it weighs 1229 empty. Considering the modest panel, I figured this was a little on the heavy side, but I know where to trim some fat. Imagine my disappointment when I did my own weight on it last night and found out it was in fact 22 pounds heavier - a fairly portly 1251!
I use a very nice set of digital race car pad scales that I have found to be highly accurate, and in fact rolled the airplane on and off the scales a total of 6 times, swapping load cells each time. I did a series of 3 in the three point attitude to establish basic weight, then 3 more with the airplane leveled. All 6 "totals" were within 2 pounds, so I'm pretty confident that this is reality. Not sure how my airplane gained more than 20 pounds in only 58 flight hours, but it is what it is.
So I guess its time for a diet program. First order of business is to replace most of that heavy, fire sleeved hose found under the cowl with stainless hard line. If my experience with the -8 is an indication, I should be able to drop 6-7 pounds right there. There also seems to be a lot of extra structure in the current avionics installation, so I should be able to shed a few more there, and the heater ducting and controls is a few more. In any case, I think I'm 50 pounds north of where I'd like to be, so we'll see how close I can get.
I think the lesson for builders is that this stuff adds up fast. It's much easier to build light in the first place than to remove it after the fact.
...actually, my airplane does. According to the W&B info in my new Rocket it weighs 1229 empty. Considering the modest panel, I figured this was a little on the heavy side, but I know where to trim some fat. Imagine my disappointment when I did my own weight on it last night and found out it was in fact 22 pounds heavier - a fairly portly 1251!
I use a very nice set of digital race car pad scales that I have found to be highly accurate, and in fact rolled the airplane on and off the scales a total of 6 times, swapping load cells each time. I did a series of 3 in the three point attitude to establish basic weight, then 3 more with the airplane leveled. All 6 "totals" were within 2 pounds, so I'm pretty confident that this is reality. Not sure how my airplane gained more than 20 pounds in only 58 flight hours, but it is what it is.
So I guess its time for a diet program. First order of business is to replace most of that heavy, fire sleeved hose found under the cowl with stainless hard line. If my experience with the -8 is an indication, I should be able to drop 6-7 pounds right there. There also seems to be a lot of extra structure in the current avionics installation, so I should be able to shed a few more there, and the heater ducting and controls is a few more. In any case, I think I'm 50 pounds north of where I'd like to be, so we'll see how close I can get.
I think the lesson for builders is that this stuff adds up fast. It's much easier to build light in the first place than to remove it after the fact.
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