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Weight and balance RV-6A conversion to RV-6

S

Stormer

Member
We are seriously thinking of converting our 6A to a 6. The plane is not yet complete but we do have to change the engine mount and add the tail wheel assembly. We have been made aware that there may be a weight and balance issue switching to a tail dragger especially if we loose the weight of the nose gear and have a fixed pitch wooden prop. Anybody out there that can shed some light on the matter ie. when your fuel load is light, how much weight can legally go in the baggage compartment(or is there any restrictions?)
Steve
 
Weight and balance RV6

I have a RV-6 with a 0360 A1A, light wt starter, light wt alt, no vacume syst, wood prop, and minimal interior. Empty wt after painting was 1009 lbs. With two 200 lbs adults I am limited to 55 lbs in the baggaged compartment and we are below gross with full fuel and would be at aft CG if fuel got down to 5 gal remaining (never let it get that low).

With my son (145 lbs), through careful weight planning, we were able to carry 97 lbs of gear for camping at OSH. We were still under gross and would reach aft CG if fuel got down to 8 gal remaining. plenty for our trip there and back. We did this by strapping our tent, flight bag and gear bag (total of 31 lbs) forward of the spar in the center or under our legs. This resulted in 66 lbs in the baggaged compartment.

The aft CG with low fuel will limit your cargo wt slightly but we have not found this to be a big issue, it can be managed. Maybe one day I can get a constant speed prop and increase weight out front which will increase the cargo capacity. If you have an O-320 you may have more of an issue. It may make more sense to use a heavier starter and alternator.
 
Hi Frank,
That helps a ton, I'm not sure how heavy our starter and alternator are but I guess if we switched to a heavier aluminum prop that may help a bit also.
Thanks for the info.
Steve
 
can also add spacer

On my -7 I added the landoll harmonic balancer and a heavy spacer for the catto prop which moved the W&B enough to allow full baggage with min fuel. I got the spacer from Sabre in TX.
 
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