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CofG and a heavy nose

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dpfisher(at)scottsbluff.n
Guest

Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 6:19 pm Post subject: 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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pipross

Joined: 28 Nov 2009
Posts: 12

Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 12:27 am Post subject: Re: CofG and a heavy nose

Good advice thanks Dave, there used to be an outfit, here in new zealand, sub4, which did modified EA81's but I think they've gone toes up so to speak... moving the radiator back, lighter prop, are a couple of things to start. I've thought about different engines but I'd rather try and make this one work as I've paid for it already. Any ideas are welcome... And yes I have VG's on the tail, I can land slow and short, I just know that it can be better balanced and weigh a little less. Does anyone know lighter props than the warp, which perform as well, and how much less weight?



Cheers

Ross

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