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1. 06:19 PM - Re:CofG and a heavy nose (Dave and Pam Fisher)
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| Subject: | Re:CofG and a heavy nose |
Hi Ross and list,
I once visited with a guy who had bought an 0200 equipped 701. It was a
very nose heavy installation with starter, oil cooler and all the gauges
and gadgets- even a retractable landing light! The original owner
literally had a box of rocks in the rear fuselage in an attempt to balance
it! The new owner got the thing to behave better without the rocks by
changing the forward horizontal tail mount angles to lower the front of the
horizontal tail by about one half inch. It's not an outrageous idea. Piper
Cubs have a screw adjustment that trims their horizontal tail in exactly
this way. The 701 has since been resold and I had an opportunity to look
at the plane. The new owner said that the aircraft flies fine and the CG
is within limits (???) but it's so heavy that it's basically a single place
aircraft and he plans to replace the 0200 with a Jabiru. The moral of the
story is that if you have a heavy engine installation, weight reduction
should be a priority, especially ahead of the CG. Go tubeless with the
tires. Jettison all the nonessentials from the panel. Remove the header
tank if you've got one. Remove any engine accessories that you can live
without. choose a lightweight prop. Eliminate the lights and wiring. It
may not be necessary to change engines if you can trim a bit off the
weight, shift weight to the rear, and do things to the tail to give it
more authority: (do you have vortex generators on your elevator?)
Free advice-worth every penny!
Dave
701 SLOW build with A80-8 Continental
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