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Weight savings?

GusBiz

GusBiz

Well Known Member
Where have people saved weight?

in the mods and alterations people have made that add weight have any of you looked at your aircraft after you have added the mirror ball above the panel, the 7.1 surround sound, inflight Microwave and marble spabath in the baggage area and decided.....

Hmmmm she is as heavy as pig now. Lets look for areas to rob peter to pay the hefty bill I owe paul.

Are there any super light batteries or alternaters made of paper mache or maybe some non-life threatening short cuts that are worth considering.
 
Only light options !!!!

Light engine
Light propeller (FP)
Light minimalist panel
Light or no interior
and last but not least light pilot and passenger.

I didn't do all of it, but installed a FP prop and took 13lbs off the pilot in the last weeks and trying to loose some more.
 
Last edited:
GusBiz said:
Where have people saved weight?

"Snipped"

Are there any super light batteries or alternaters made of paper mache or maybe some non-life threatening short cuts that are worth considering.
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I think the most non-life threatening "short cut" is to loose weight off the pilot and pax. This would have the additional benefit of possible increase in life span. Take a look at the statistics in the link below:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity

It seems that the Western world must do a lot more to fight the "Flab" or move to Switzerland!!!

However I do agree with the other points Pascal has made above.
 
Yup - Pilot and passenger weights are far easier to control than trying to find weight to shave off the airframe, unless you decide to limit the equipment you install. It is amazing how much you can lose if you are patient and take the long view - and have mutual spousal support!

The RV airframe is very well designed, which means (in engineering parlance), there is very little that you can take away.

And, of course, you can always fly with less than full tanks for the lightweight experience.

Paul
 
i have given this some thought and came up with an idea true to the post. i dought anyone has used this for weight savings.

replacing the seatbelt cables and rudder cables with line used on sailboats will save weight. the materials vary but the strength is very good and LIGHT.

pure genius at work. i do surprise myself sometime. :eek:
 
pgroell said:
light pilot and passenger.
Click to expand...

A friend of mine and I were hanging out doing some mountain biking sometime last year. We met a group of guys with more money than brains. They kept talking about the new bikes coming out with carbon fiber this and carbon fiber that. Meanwhile, all of those guys, while not obese, could easily lose more weight than the weight savings they would get by spending $5k on a new mountain bike.
 
I agree that the easiest places to lose weight are likely on your own body and not filling the fuel tanks to the top.

A signficant weight savings is also possible in the battery used. Someone recently posted this link

http://www.lithiumaviationbattery.com/index.html

regarding lithium batteries that are about 1/10 the weight of their lead-acid equivalents. These were also recently discussed at length in the Aeroelectric forum, where Bob Nuckolls suggested that while they may indeed be the wave of the future, they have not yet proven their reliability and cost-effectiveness.

erich
 
Ironflight said:
Yup - Pilot and passenger weights are far easier to control than trying to find weight to shave off the airframe, unless you decide to limit the equipment you install.
Click to expand...

When I compare my wife and I...................to a Caribbean trip we took a few years ago (when we "waz" ultra skinny).....

It's like we're now throwing three bags of 40 lb. rock salt in to the plane, every time we fly. If you carry just two bags, from the car, to the basement for the water softener............you realize just how heavy this additional and unneeded weight is!
 
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