DonMuncy

I would add that recalculating all your W&Bs is not an exercise for the weak at heart. The weights are easy. The moments and CGs are entirely different. The worse part is that they are not intuitive, at least for me. Removing an item generally results in a minus to the moment, but if you change a prop, you will wind up doing a minus for the removal, but it is at a negative station, so the two minuses turn into a positive. How does anyone who is not a mathematical genius wrap their head around that. Living with some minor errors starts looking pretty nice.

Prepare yourself. They have a flat rate (not cheap) to do any repair.

Yes, Anthony, I have had a bunch of education, but never took Statics. I managed to wade through all my W&B calculations, for a net useful load gain of 2 pounds due to errors, and less than 1/2 inch in CG. Actually, except for rounding errors, the only change was where my avionics shop managed to overlook one sheet back in '04, which then tainted all the numbers up until now. So, mainly an exercise in futility, except for the satisfaction of knowing it is right, and I now know how to do the calculations.

Has someone created an app to calculate W&B changes. I am doing mine by hand and it is driving me crazy.

I answered my own question. When I started redoing the calculations in my records, I figured out that is exactly how it is done. The way that RLCarter says. Calculate the Moment of the new item from the weight and arm. Add the new item Moment to the old total Moment (to derive the new total Moment) Then multiply that Moment by 1000 and divide the result by the new total weight to get the new total arm. Every A&P and avionics tech knows how to do this. Duh. I guess I'm the only one that had not gone through that process before.

First, how did you figure that out? Second, any idea why they would do it that way. Do you surmise they weigh the plane and use that to locate the center of gravity. I'm not sure I understand how that works. (But the fact I don't understand it is not surprising)

Thanks for the info Skip. Incidentally, one of the tubes at my cowl flap drips a few drops of what appears to be fuel sometimes at shutdown. I assumed it was from the sniffle valve, but I have no idea where it comes from.

I have read on MS several times that nylon ty raps would cut into aluminum tubes. I'm not contending this is untrue, but has anyone seen a ty rap actually do that, or make a discernable groove in the aluminum.

I was reading the other post on weight and balance, and just for fun, decided to check mine. Interestingly, the very first entry (from the factory) seems to have an error. The empty weight is shown to be 1930 at an arm of +43.6, but the moment/1000 is listed at 84.08. Unless my calculator has malfunctioned, the moment should be 84.148, or rounding like they did, 84.15. I recognize this is a miniscule difference, and a little unlikely to cause me to fall out of the sky. But just to play the super accuracy game, do you think they wrote down the arm incorrectly, or did the calculation a little off. What do all the other K model owner's W&B say? Mine is an 82 model, serial number 25-0686.

Got any better pictures? Does it lift the nose gear? If so, what does the lifting? Your leverage on the handle? I'm always looking for ways to perfect my design.

I think I might be able to understand that. I always check for airspeed early in the roll, but I don't know how long it would take me realize it had not come alive and I had to do something.

With no intent to sound critical, what kind of instrumentation problem would cause one to attempt to abort a takeoff late in the roll.

An oriental rug under your plane? High class!

I would be proud too.

My Home Depot (or Lowes, I forget which) stopped selling the real MEK in quarts, but still sold gallons. I guess they think that cheap people need protection, but rich guys are smart enough to know what they are doing. I don't know if that is still the case. I bought a gallon several years ago, and still have half of it. Do you think this is the reason I can't remember anything anymore?

My understanding is that legally, the A&P making any change to the equipment on the plane is required to update the W&B. My experience is that if it is less than a pound, they will often enter the change as negligible, with no recalculation.

Take a look at my album at the ones my hanger elf turned out. I will freely share the methods, and if pushed hard, I might be induced to turn out a set for about what I have in them.

I'm with you Amelia. I started to install 1 1/2 inch extensions on my plane only to discover it already had them. I installed 3 inch ones, and have been really pleased. It is amazing to me how much difference it makes to move to the second holes in the seat rails. I also agree about the price. They are easy to manufacture and install; at least that is what my hangar elf says.

I actually like the slotted ones. They are a nuisance to keep from scratching the paint, but I like to be able to look at the cowling and know that if all the slots are running the same direction, they are all latched.

I think the XM weather is superior to the ADSB, but the expense was just too high to keep paying when I went ADSB.

Me too!

I rigged one for testing with paper clips and ordinary fuses, but the originals are pretty specialized.

Until I found a better source, the $30 fuses for the panel lights.

I like that you kept the "231" on the tail. How did a photo of a Deux Chevaux sneak in there?

I have old David Clarks with the headsets.inc ANR units and with Oregon Aero foam earpads. My hangar elf hardwired a plug for the ANR units adjacent to the headset plugs so I don't have to fool with batteries. I "unsprung" the DC headset tension band a bit and with the foam earpads, they are much more comfortable than the clamping of the original DCs. I admit Bose (and perhaps a few others) are superior, but not by much. I am quite happy with my set up. Almost perfect for a CB.