And now, to lighten things up a bit! Well, maybe not…..
We hear all the time that a light RV is a well-flying RV. The lighter, the more delightful is what we all know to be true. This is actually valid with almost all airplanes, and it is also true that designs get heavier with age – it is just impossible for us all not to add features and capabilities that naturally come with a weight penalty. Modern avionics have actually reversed that trend a little bit – new digital boxes are generally much lighter than the steam gauges and tube radios they are replacing – but then we simply add more of them to get additional capability, so we rarely see the savings.
Some folks go to great lengths to build a light airframe, and that is a great goal – one way to achieve a light ship. I think someone here cut out all the allowable lightening holes in an RV-6, saved the parts removed, and weighed them all – it came to a couple of pounds. So lightening the structure is hard to do. Putting in minimal equipment, going with a wood prop, using a Chino paint scheme (bare aluminum) – these all work. But remember that when you become airborne, the weight we are talking about is TOTAL weight – aircraft, fuel, cargo, and humans. Which begs the question – how much weight is the average RV’er carrying around on their bodies while trying to save a pound here and a pound there on the airplane?
The LAST thing I want to know is how much people weigh BY NAME….that would come under the heading of “To Much Information” in spades. So let’s keep the poll anonymous. But if I remember my demographics correctly, RV’ers tend towards their 50’s, and that’s a time we begin fighting the “Battle of the Bulge” in earnest. My Flight Surgeons (frequently) harp on the fact that the lighter we are, the better it is all around – and we can expect to keep that medical and fly longer to boot!
So vote if you will – keep it anonymous, comment if you like – and let’s see, how many cheeseburgers is that SL-30 worth again?
Paul
We hear all the time that a light RV is a well-flying RV. The lighter, the more delightful is what we all know to be true. This is actually valid with almost all airplanes, and it is also true that designs get heavier with age – it is just impossible for us all not to add features and capabilities that naturally come with a weight penalty. Modern avionics have actually reversed that trend a little bit – new digital boxes are generally much lighter than the steam gauges and tube radios they are replacing – but then we simply add more of them to get additional capability, so we rarely see the savings.
Some folks go to great lengths to build a light airframe, and that is a great goal – one way to achieve a light ship. I think someone here cut out all the allowable lightening holes in an RV-6, saved the parts removed, and weighed them all – it came to a couple of pounds. So lightening the structure is hard to do. Putting in minimal equipment, going with a wood prop, using a Chino paint scheme (bare aluminum) – these all work. But remember that when you become airborne, the weight we are talking about is TOTAL weight – aircraft, fuel, cargo, and humans. Which begs the question – how much weight is the average RV’er carrying around on their bodies while trying to save a pound here and a pound there on the airplane?
The LAST thing I want to know is how much people weigh BY NAME….that would come under the heading of “To Much Information” in spades. So let’s keep the poll anonymous. But if I remember my demographics correctly, RV’ers tend towards their 50’s, and that’s a time we begin fighting the “Battle of the Bulge” in earnest. My Flight Surgeons (frequently) harp on the fact that the lighter we are, the better it is all around – and we can expect to keep that medical and fly longer to boot!
So vote if you will – keep it anonymous, comment if you like – and let’s see, how many cheeseburgers is that SL-30 worth again?
Paul
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