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Tom Jones
Joined: 12 Mar 2006
Posts: 752
Location: Ellensburg, WA
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 Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 6:57 am Post subject: Ballast for flight testing |
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I'm looking for ideas on what to use for ballast and how to secure it in the airplane. I am flight testing my kitfox Classic 4. the engine is a rotax 503. With full fuel and myself, weight is 840 pounds. I want to start increasing the weight a little at a time.
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_________________
Tom Jones
Classic IV
503 Rotax, 72 inch Two blade Warp
Ellensburg, WA |
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john(at)leptron.com
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| Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 7:15 am Post subject: Ballast for flight testing |
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Tom,
I used bags of lead shot I bought from the local reloading store. You can
also find it at a diver supply store.
John Oakley
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RRTRACK(at)aol.com
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| Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 7:16 am Post subject: Ballast for flight testing |
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I used 60# water softener bags in the passenger seat for my testing. Used the seat belt to hold them from moving. First 120#, then 180#, and then 240#. It cuts down on performance a lot, but stalls were only about 5 MPH more at gross weight.
Good luck on your flight tests,
Mark
Kitfox 5 Vixen
912UL IVO
Hartford, Wisconsin
See [quote][b]
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Sbennett3(at)aol.com
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| Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 8:21 am Post subject: Ballast for flight testing |
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Try 60 or 80 lbs bags of sack krete from home depot. Wrap them in heavy plastic, or go ahead and soak them down to harden the concrete Steve Bennett Kitfox iv 1200 912 uls
[quote][b]
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Guy Buchanan
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 1204
Location: Ramona, CA
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| Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 9:38 am Post subject: Ballast for flight testing |
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At 07:57 AM 10/16/2007, you wrote:
| Quote: | I'm looking for ideas on what to use for ballast and how to secure
it in the airplane.
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I used sand bags which I bagged, tied together, then tied into my
seat belt system. I wouldn't do aerobatics with it, but it worked
fine for flight test, which was invariably in smooth air.
Guy Buchanan
San Diego, CA
K-IV 1200 / 582-C / Warp / 100% done, thanks mostly to Bob Ducar.
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Guy Buchanan
Deceased K-IV 1200
A glider pilot too. |
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msm_9949(at)yahoo.com
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| Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 11:05 am Post subject: Ballast for flight testing |
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Hi Tom. I used bags of playground sand, 40# each, purchased from garden dept at Wal-Mart. Duct-Taped together and seat-belted into passenger seat. Amazing how much faster my model 2 sinks at MTOW (950#) than with just me flying.
Later, I used the sand to build a brick patio.
Good luck with your flight testing.
Tom Jones <nahsikhs(at)elltel.net> wrote:
[quote]--> Kitfox-List message posted by: "Tom Jones"
I'm looking for ideas on what to use for ballast and how to secure it in the airplane. I am flight testing my kitfox Classic 4. the engine is a rotax 503. With full fuel and myself, weight is 840 pounds. I want to start increasing the weight a little at a time.
--------
Tom Jones
Classic IV, Phase one
503 Rotax, 72 inch Two blade [quote][b]
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Michael Logan
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 82
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| Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 1:19 pm Post subject: Ballast for flight testing |
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I used an old military duffel bag to secure the load in the seat. Used lead
shot bags for the load.
Mike Logan
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Mike Logan
Fredericksburg, VA |
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barry(at)pgtc.com
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| Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:07 am Post subject: Ballast for flight testing |
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Sandbags
Barry West
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Tom Jones
Joined: 12 Mar 2006
Posts: 752
Location: Ellensburg, WA
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| Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 11:53 am Post subject: Re: Ballast for flight testing |
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Okay, thanks all for the ideas everyone! I have a duffel bag. I'll probably get some sand and some bags and some duck tape.
I don't know if the little 503 will really get to the 1050 gross weight skystar advertised. The heaviest I have flown it so far is about 850 pounds. It was a warm day and rate of climb was about 500 feet/minute. The weather is much cooler now. I'll increase the weight a little at a time.
The CG for my flight tests so far has been near the froward limit. I am interested to see how moving the CG back affects the handling too.
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_________________
Tom Jones
Classic IV
503 Rotax, 72 inch Two blade Warp
Ellensburg, WA |
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