J

jpowell13

Well Known Member
Just replaced the bald Aero Classic tires on the mains of my 6a with Monster Retreads hoping to get more life out of them. I've heard the retreads were heavier so I weighed the tires and rims before and after. The retreads are 7 lbs heavier. That's a pretty good hit to the useful load.

Nancy and I are preparing to make a trip from Baton Rouge to Idaho and will probably go sans main wheel pants since they also weigh about 7 pounds and I don't mind trading a little speed for baggage. Anyone else out there flying around without their pants on?
 
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flying without pants

Occasionally, I do but I find that the seat belts can chafe a bit and other things get in the way of the stick. :(

Oh, I just realized you mean wheel pants. No, never.
 
fuel for thought

...now this is NOT an endorsement to fly over gross......

however, the next thing I thought was......

weight drops by 7 lbs every 10 minutes of flight.

drag is there for the whole trip! ( without pants)
 
You'l give away about 10 knots going without wheel pants -not important if you're only goign a short distance- but Baton Rouge to Idaho? That's a lot of hours! the other thing to consider is that coling goes up witht he square of speed (or something like that), and in the summer, out west, giving up cooling is a prolem for a closely cowled airplane.

Far better to keep the pants on (the wheel pants that is - we don't care what you do in the privacy of your own cockpit...) for the long trip, and fidn someplace to store them when you get out west before goign into the back country. They don't take long to remove, and there are lots of RV'ers around with storage space in their hangars.

Paul
 
Was the before weight the weight of a worn tire or a new tire? I would bet that the difference between a new and worn tire weight is significant.
 
I am sure you could find some RV people in Idaho that have tools and space to help your wheel pants while you hit the back strips. If you are in the Caldwell area, I will help you out.
 
According to the specs, the Desser Monster retread weighs about 7 lb against 5 lb for a typical Goodyear 5.00*5.

On that basis you are only accepting a 4 lb weight penalty.

But a 5+% speed/range penalty is equivalent to about 2 gallons of Avgas. So filling up with 2 gallons less will save you more weight and give you the same range as removing the wheel fairings.
 
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