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Mikes RV-9A Web Site
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Date: 6-24-2010
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Number of Hours: 1.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: W&B-Nose wheel weight issues
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The weight & balance process has been an "interesting" exercise on my plane.
It turns out, with my FULL instrument panel, and the Hartzel prop, I have a nose "heavy" airplane. (Who knows, perhaps there is even a weight difference amongst the different Lyc O-320 models) Even though the plane easily fits within the Van's design envelope for all flight conditions, there is a complicating issue... maximum operating nose wheel weight.
Due to the number of landing nose over accidents in the past, in 2007 Van's came out with Service Bulletin establishing an operating CG graph, limiting the nose wheel weight to 325 lbs on the RV-9A and 375 lbs on the RV-7A.
It turns out, as built, my plane has some loading conditions (single pilot, max fuel, no baggage) where I could exceed the nose wheel weight established for the -9A's by about 15 lbs. Since the -7A's have an extra 50 lbs allowed on the nose (I'm assume for fact that they have a heavier engine), my overweight nose probably isn't "actually" a problem.
I hate adding dead weight, but I think overall it's important to mitigate a "heavy" nose on these airplanes. As a result, I've decided to add 8 lbs of lead in the tail, at Station 180". That moves my empty nose weight from 291 to 279, which in turn keeps the nose wheel weight under 325 for all flight conditions.
The process continues....... Airworthiness application paperwork was mailed to the FAA on Friday
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