Shoddy Aircraft Performance

[cwo4ret]

Shoddy Aircraft Performance

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For you experienced pilots this is probably a NO BRAINER, but it might be an eye opener for some of the new guys like it was for me.

I have a Colt with an 0-235 that just did not have the stuff to preform like the charts in the manual said. IE, take off, landing, climb. I would figure the charts every way I could think of, but could never get my Colt anywhere near the ball park of what it said when adding GW , DA , Temp, Wind, and all the other good stuff.

Then the light came on and I had a revelation.

Durning my last Annual I had them do a new weight and balance, the last one was when it rolled out of the factory 55 years ago. Guess what? The empty weight of 950 wasn't 950 any more. It was now 1141. Holly Jumping Beans, I have been flying way over gross weight every take off and landing, no wonder I couldn't hit the mark.

So now, doing the figures with an all new updated Weight & Balance, I'm back in the ball park again. It is amazing how much that extra 100 pounds will affect performance.

[Curly]

The Colt is like the rest of us - tend to add a bit to the waistline as we get older

[pistoncan]

were you able to figure out where the extra 191 lbs came from?

[cwo4ret]

Mostly dirt, found a lot of dirt dobbed nest, Things added on that were not added to the Weight & Bal sheet. Be surprised how much a gps, transponder, flip flop com, antennas, and new wire weigh. Extra coats of paint. All the hardware needed, but not listed, to add two landing lights to the left wing, and a gas tank to the right wing that did not come from the factory. A couple ounces here a pound there, stuff adds up.

[pistoncan]

Mostly dirt, found a lot of dirt dobbed nest, Things added on that were not added to the Weight & Bal sheet. Be surprised how much a gps, transponder, flip flop com, antennas, and new wire weigh. Extra coats of paint. All the hardware needed, but not listed, to add two landing lights to the left wing, and a gas tank to the right wing that did not come from the factory. A couple ounces here a pound there, stuff adds up.

Yep sorta like my wasteline. Sneaks up on ya.
But you brought up a good point, which is something I struggle with on my project. If you want it to fly like a vagabond, it can;t be decked out like a tri-pacer. I replaced the weatherhead fittings in my fuel system with AN aluminum and, although I didn;t weigh them, It must be 5 lbs of fittings. For some reason, Missouri seems to be the dirt dauber capitol of america too. I ended up putting golf T's in the open ends of my fuel lines till I get them finished just to ward them off. I would imagine the biggest culprits are the Instruments, radios, gas tank and assorted wiring/plumbing. (In my case, its ice cream)