Aircraft Weighed

[Greg1]

I recently looked at an aircraft that was for sale. A few years back the owner had the airplane weighed and the result was an increase of 80 pounds in the empty weight. Granted, the actual weight of the airplane is now known more precisely, but the cost is a loss of 80 pounds of useful load.

OK, I'm braced for the arrows to fly. Is there a legal way to disregard the weighing that occurred and go back to the previous numbers?

I honestly think most of us would lose a fair amount of useful load if we actually had our aircraft weighed.

[carusoam]

Really?

You are going to fight the laws of physics using faulty logic?

That won't work very long, especially when you visit an airport that is high or hot.

It is best to remove old weighty objects I would think...

No arrows required...

Real Mooney pilots use proper logic.

Best regards,

-a-

[aviatoreb]

Real Mooney pilots use proper logic.

 

 

Ooooh - harsh.  True yes, but Harsh.

[DS1980]

This was a joke right?

I mean...........Labor Day Fools!!!!! hahaha I got you all!.......

 

Of course, I'm assuming Mooney isn't paying you to be a test pilot. Disregard my previous post if they are.

[Danb]

Really

[orionflt]

You could have it reweighed to ensure that the last weighing was correct, but weight is weight and you can't just disregard it because you don't like the number.

Brian

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[carusoam]

Erik,

Patrick taught me not to tread lightly on that subject. But I didn't get the personal touch Patrick had.

Brian certainly handled it better than I did.

Greg, please get the point. It's better for all of us...

After all, logic will prevail...

Best regards,

-a-

[urbanti]

Greg - I agree that most GA planes out there with old W&B docs probably weigh more than the forms indicate.

When I bought my Bonanza we tore all sorts of heavy crap out of the plane during the avionics install, weighed the plane, and it gained weight

While this won't help at resale when compared to other planes, it is what it is.

My advice would be to either buy the plane and keep the current W&B in the aircraft, or look for another similar plane that has a (credible) higher payload.

best

Tim

[cliffy]

I weighed my Mooney and found it was listed as 90 lbs heavier than it really was. I GAINED 90 lbs of useful load. Turned out to be a mistake on the original W&B from the factory.  Who would have thunk!

[aviatoreb]

Erik,

Patrick taught me not to tread lightly on that subject. But I didn't get the personal touch Patrick had.

Brian certainly handled it better than I did.

Greg, please get the point. It's better for all of us...

After all, logic will prevail...

Best regards,

-a-

 

We all remember Patrick.  Thank you A.

[stevesm20b]

It's not all that uncommon for airplanes to end up weighing more than the weight and balance documents show. That may explain why many airplanes don't match book speeds or climb performance.  

[N201MKTurbo]

Instead of trying to cook the books, why don't you see about lightening her up. You might be surprised at how much crap there is in old airplanes.

If you are worried about flying 80 pounds over gross, go ahead, nobody will check until the accident investigation.

[FlyDave]

Instead of trying to cook the books, why don't you see about lightening her up. You might be surprised at how much crap there is in old airplanes.

If you are worried about flying 80 pounds over gross, go ahead, nobody will check until the accident investigation.

Hahahahahahaha

[triple8s]

The purpose of POH, W&B and tables, like ground roll and landing distance tables are to keep pilots out of trouble. If you have owned and flown your bird for years you probably know what to expect (probably). That being said what's gonna happen when your sell your plane or someone other than you has to get in and fly it and they want to do things the right way and break out the W&B and YOU have forged them? If you want to fly over gross go for it but altering aircraft logbooks is absolutely not cool, because in doing so you are setting up a scenario for others to exceed limitations unknowingly. Get the bird weighed, know what's in the tables and fly it how you want to fly it, fly over gross, push the envelop on T.O and landing distances, that may be you but don't set up others that do go by the book. NOT COOL

[Mooneymite]

>>>>> Instead of trying to cook the books, why don't you see about lightening her up. <<<<<

Some people inflate their tires with regular air, others use nitrogen. Personally, I prefer helium. :-)

(Just kidding, honest)

[Guest]

Wouldn't it be the vendors problem to resolve the W&B issue? If his plane is heavier than many of the others which are for sale he or she should look into it, not you the purchaser.

Clarence

[Greg1]

Thank you all for your responses. And I agree with them all. By the way, I didn't buy the airplane. My question was purely hypothetical and I posed it by asking if it would be legal, not right or smart.

Just as an aside, how many of you have ever actually weighed your airplane? Just asking since we all want to know precisely what our planes weigh. Right?

[chrisk]

I'd be happy to weigh my airplane, if it didn't cost more than $100 and could be done locally.....  So, no I have not weighed it.

[flyboy0681]

How much does a weighing cost? It's probably a good safety measure (pun intended) to have.

 

I do recall when we had the GTN installed the plane shed 20 pounds after all of the old equipment was removed.

[N7186V]

I had to have a weight and balance done on my aircraft when I bought her.  it looks like Muncie Aviation did mine for $85 if I'm reading my invoice correctly.

[Piloto]

I have the same problem when I stand on the scale every morning with just my underwear. I just wish I was like a Mooney that does not show weight gain.

 

José

[Hank]

I have the same problem when I stand on the scale every morning with just my underwear. I just wish I was like a Mooney that does not show weight gain.

José

The weigh yourself like we do our Mooneys. Write it down once, and only change it after surgery. Viola! Your feelings of being overweight can be conquered! Just start with an adult weight, please; ladies can start with a teenage weight if desired.

That will save having to add in and subtract out arm and leg casts for most males of the mid 20th century, plus annoyances like braces and headgear (those looked mighty uncomfortable in my brother).

[Lood]

In South Africa, our airplanes HAVE to be weighed every 5 years. My Mooney was weighed the year I bought it and its empty weight was 1700lbs. This meant a useful load of 1040lbs that I could load 656lbs with full tanks - not bad. So, I flew it accordingly for the next 5 years and never ever had a problem, or felt that I was running into trouble on any MAUW take off's.

During that 5 years, I had just about all the old radio's and all other obsolete avionics, instruments and wiring removed and had them replaced with fewer, newer and a lot lighter components. However, when my Mooney was reweighed, it gained 73lbs and now has an empty weight of 1773lbs!!! You can do the math and imagine my disappointment, loosing all that useful load. My F can now legally carry what an older C172 can.

Although I know for a fact that it does fly perfectly well "overloaded" with that 73lbs, I now stick to the new weight. I can just imagine the field day the insurance will have, should I have an incident and they discover that I was overloaded - regadless whether the latter was a contributing factor or not...

[ArtVandelay]

When they weigh a plane, do they drain the fuel, or do they use the fuel gauges to calculate the amount in the tanks?

[jetdriven]

And how sure are you that those scales are

certified, calibrated, and accurate? also did they follow the procedure in the SMM?

On the J at least, the fuel sumps must be pulled and the oil must be drained. Estimating fuel might be accurate to 5 gallons but that's 30 lbs. hardly close enough for all those worried about an accurate empty weight.