What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Scales?

N8RV

N8RV

Well Known Member
It seems to me that I had heard that one of the VAF vendors had a set of digital aircraft scales available for rental once upon a time. I thought it was Avery, but there's no reference on their website. Then it occurred to me that maybe it was Van's that rented the scales. But again, no luck finding it on their website.

I've searched VAF for some reference, but have come up dry.

I didn't want to resort to using bathroom scales, but may have to because nobody around here has aircraft or automotive racing scales, and I'm not gonna pony up $1000 for a set to weigh my plane one time.

Anybody have any suggestions?
 
In addition to Avery, call around to your local industrial supply stores - I found some for rent in my area.

erich
 
Don,

Check your EAA chapter. Our chapter (309) bought a set of race scales and we rent them out for $50 to anyone who needs them, member or not.

$25 of that goes to either a year's membership renewal or a free membership for non-members. In addition to bringing new members in, we paid for the scales within two years.
 
I have a set of digital Intercomp scales that my partner and I purchased to weigh the Cozy MKIV. We got them used and sent them to Intercomp for calibration and a new display. My partner and I rent them out for $50 for the weekend or $100 for a week, but they have to be picked up in Troy (KVLL), Howell (KOZW), or Brighton (45G) Michigan. We can also arrange a meet as we did with a builder in Kentucky. Shipping charges are prohibitively expensive as I found out and we do not want to risk shipping damages. We had no luck with the local EAA chapters around her. The only one that had a set of scales was one with a single old farm platform scale so we bit the bullit and bought a set.
 
David Clifford said:
...The only one that had a set of scales was one with a single old farm platform scale so we bit the bullit and bought a set.
Click to expand...
Actually I think the farm scales are a good idea. I weighed my RV on a feed scale that a rancher friend had. He had cut the vertical part down so that his own RV could be weighed. Should be quite accurate.
 
n5lp said:
Actually I think the farm scales are a good idea. I weighed my RV on a feed scale that a rancher friend had. He had cut the vertical part down so that his own RV could be weighed. Should be quite accurate.
Click to expand...

Actually it was not very accurate, or better stated, its only as accurate as the scale and the ability of the operator. We first used the platform farm scale and even after leveling the plane after putting it under each wheel, the numbers were quite a bit different from the digital three pad Intercomp scales that were calibrated. We had differences of over 30# per main wheel which is not good,,,especially when doing the W & B on a Cozy MKIV which is CG critical when operating. What really got us thinking that the platform scale was off was when we weighed the nose wheel,, which has a target weight of 6# IIRC on the Cozy, and we were getting a reading of 28#. Heck,,,I could easily lift the nose wheel off the ground with my fingers on one hand so we knew the readings were wrong. I know alot of builders use a platform scale and some even use bathroom scales and falcrum levers. IMHO it is not a good idea for such a critical issue and we are happy with the decision to purchase a good digital loadcell set of scales.
 
On the RV-6, I rented platform scales from a local scale rental company, but it wasn't cheap and I had to pick them up and drop them off. On the Rocket, my local FBO let me use his digital scales on a weekend (when the FBO hangar wasn't busy) and I threw him $50 for doing so. That's the way to go if you can.
 
Thanks for the help, everybody! Don't know why I couldn't find that info on Avery's site.

David, Howell's not THAT far away from me. I'll PM you and we'll work something out if I still can't find anyone locally with scales. One would think that, in a town built around the RV industry, SOMEBODY would have some scales sitting around doing nothing these days ...

Thanks again!
 
ptrotter said:
Don,

Does this mean your actually getting close to finishing?

Paul
Click to expand...

Yes, Paul, that's right. I hope you're sitting down, as this will be quite a shock to your system. N8RV's engine runs smooth and strong, and it taxis straight and true. That's as far as I've ventured so far. I'm in the process of learning systems and finishing the paperwork for the inspection. Hoping for the first flight before Oshkosh.

Stay tuned ...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top