Weight and Balance

It is getting real now! With everything on the plane (at least first flight wise) it was time for the weight and balance. I am going to keep some of the interior out of the plane until Phase I is done. So the pretty side panels, carpet, and anything that covers up quick access to things like the wiring I am going to keep off. That said I will have to do another weight and balance when Phase I is complete.

Thankfully EAA 186 has a set of scales. Not only do they have a set of scales, but they have the complete setup that was plug and play to include the ramps to get onto the scales. While I did this by myself, it would have been handy to have a second set of hands to get the plane up onto the scales. While an inch and a half incline does not seem like a lot (especially over that ramp distance) I had to take a pretty good running start to get up onto the scales, and then stop quick enough in order to not blow past them. Quick reminder to zero the scales otherwise you will have to struggle getting the plane onto the scales twice...

With the plane on the scales, the next step was to put the plane into flight level. This line can get picked up at the door sills. Thanks to Jim at the chapter for mentioning to me prior to the start of this that letting the air out of the tires is the preferred approach to get the plane level. That worked well and was way easier than what I had planned in my head for incrementally adding shims under the main tires.

With the plane centered on the scales and centered, it was time to take some measurements. I started my marking out some layout lines and taking the measurements. The datum point in the exemplar W&B from Vans is 99.44 inches forward the wing leading edge. I marked that out and then took the measurements back from the Datum back to the nose wheel and the left and right main wheels.

That was pretty straight forward. With all of the layout done it was time for the big (moment). Taking the obligatory new baby weight photo! N5412K weighed in at 1650 lbs and was about as close as I could imagine it being from left and right balance. This puts me along side everyone else where I will probably contemplate flying with some ballast in the baggage area while flying by myself. That said, without ballast and single pilot N5412K is still within limits, so awesome!

Flight Test CG