Jr Hampton
Active Member
If one were looking at an RV to purchase and wanted to increase the gross weight, how would one go about it. Me and the Mrs are overweight. yes Im trying to loose some weight.
I think you have your best solution staring you right in the mirror.Me and the Mrs are overweight.
Replace the data plate with a new one indicating the new gross.
That part is interesting, since gross weight is not one of the required pieces of information that has to be on the required data plate.
I thought gross weight was a value that could only be altered by the designer of the aircraft.
I may be having a senior moment, but wasn't there a situation last year where an RV10 owner got cross-ways with Van over his stated change of gross weight for his aircraft? I could have sworn I read here that the gross weight change would have to be approved by a DER, even on an experimental design. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong.
There are even rumors that some RV-6's have been safely/carefully flown over the registered gross weight and still within WB limits.
I'm a bit surprised by comments in this thread so far. Sure, one can (and many have) registered their aircraft with higher gross weights than the designer recommended. However, the designer's gross weight was not set willy-nilly. Whether or not the plane flies OK at a higher weight under benign flying conditions, you're still cutting into the designer-provided safety margin that may be nice to have when someday you end up in not-so-benign flying conditions.If one were looking at an RV to purchase and wanted to increase the gross weight, how would one go about it. Me and the Mrs are overweight. yes Im trying to loose some weight.
During the restoration of a certain little "early model" yellow RV, we realized that the airframe had gained weight over the years, and so had the prospective pilot population (including it's original pilot). Since we were during a complete re-licensing inspection, we checked with our DAR, and he asked to see some documentation from the designer that an increased Gross would be acceptable. So we had a discussion with said designer, and he allowed that if we restricted the airplane from aerobatics, we could safely bump the weight up. That's what we did, and with disciplined pilots, we have any problems.
The moral is - we didn't just arbitrarily set a new GW, we went back to the original designer and took a disciplined approach - I'd suggest the same to anyone wishing to do this - but then, I am an engineer, and like to see the numbers.
I'm a bit surprised by comments in this thread so far. Sure, one can (and many have) registered their aircraft with higher gross weights than the designer recommended. However, the designer's gross weight was not set willy-nilly. Whether or not the plane flies OK at a higher weight under benign flying conditions, you're still cutting into the designer-provided safety margin that may be nice to have when someday you end up in not-so-benign flying conditions.
Just my honest opinion, I would think twice about buying a plane that does not fit me and then try to change the paperwork to make it look like it fits me.
An exception to your statement may be the ELSA/SLSA GW figures. They are set to conform to LSA requirements, and are set by paperwork limits, not necessarily design limits.