Heavy weight Colt

[Steve Pierce]

If you go through the flow chart for field approvals in specifies gross weight increases are not field approvable and must go through the ACO. That is a deal killer to me. As far as I am concerned you have a 150 hp Colt that should have no issues with the higher gross weight. If you look at Pacer/Tri-Pacer gross weights they are all dependent on the engine. The later models had more ribs in the wing but only changed the Vne.

[dgapilot]

So, let's say I've already dug into all the drawings to compare the Colt to the Pacer structurally. And let's say I've found that they are indeed structurally identical in the landing gear and wing attach areas and any other area that could matter. Since I'm comparing the Colt to the Pacer 115, I'd think it's a no brainer to apply for a 1750 lb gross weight. There may be other higher weights that make sense as well but for now, for the field approval process, to whom would I send an application? Could this be done on a 337 and would this be something that I'd send to my local FSDO for them to buy off on? I'd doubt that there would be anybody on the local level that could accept the responsibility. I'm thinking getting a DER involved blows any kind of budget out of the water. Where do these kinds of approval requests go to either live or die?

You can’t get a Field Approval for a gross weight increase. The AFS-300 Major Repair and Alteration Job Aid Paragraph A.1 explicitly says any change that increases gross weight has to be done by STC. If you do all the work to compare all the drawings, that’s about half the battle. You still need to write up a Project Specific Certification Plan that your ACO needs to approve, and then perform any test or analysis identified in the PSCP. It’s a lot of work, and the ACO will want you to hire DERs to do the analysis/comparison, and DARs to do the conformity inspections.


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[Rankin]

Has anyone used STC3259NM, for a gross weight increase to 1736 lbs on a PA-22-108?

I would appreciate any information regarding this STC.

Thanks

[dgapilot]

Has anyone used STC3259NM, for a gross weight increase to 1736 lbs on a PA-22-108?

I would appreciate any information regarding this STC.

Thanks

Have you tried contacting Lawrence Kirkwood?


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[Rankin]

Have you tried contacting Lawrence Kirkwood?


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I haven't found his contact info yet.

Is there any chance you have his contact info?

thanks

[dgapilot]

I haven't found his contact info yet.

Is there any chance you have his contact info?

thanks

There is an address in the FAA RGL with the STC info. Looks like the last time the STC was updated was 2003, so who knows.


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[Rankin]

Thanks for your help

[Steve Pierce]

Would be curious what is involved in making this modification.

[dgapilot]

Would be curious what is involved in making this modification.

I would as well. Curious how he came up with 1736. Most of the seaplane variants are 1738, and that is what made it so I didn’t have to do a complete analysis on the airframe, the PA-16S is 1738. Seems like an odd number that he came up with.


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[T. Bix]

Still following! If anybody digs this up, Please share.