Weight of Completed Planes

[DAlexan424 <DAlexan424@aol.com>]

Hi All,

The other day, I wasin the garage messin' around with the plane parts, and I
noted how heavy the canard was getting as it approaches completion. 

I haven't got the foggiest idea what these parts are supposed to weigh and I
think that it would be difficult to make a direct part by part comparision,
but an alternative idea came about.

Recently, I was reading a post on Rec.Aviation.Homebuilt about weight and
balance. This fellow went on to describe the process for determining where the
center of gravity is. It involved three scales, one under each wheel and
computations for balance.

What I would like to know for now is much simplier than a complete weight and
balance. If some of our Velocitites with FLYING aircraft have the weights for
each wheel of their planes at the wheels, I think it would be helpful for
those of us still constructing to have realistic weights in order to compare
and relocate things. What I mean is that suppose a flying RG has a weight of
approx. 600 lbs. on each main gear and a weight of 450 lbs. on the nose gear.
Someone else gets to that point and discovers that he has 550 on each gear and
550 on the nose gear. This would tell him/her that some major work remains in
the balance area before the nose can be expected to get off the ground safely.
At that point, maybe a battery could be relocated or the $100K IFR radio stack
pared down a bit.

Just a thought, but BOY! I'd like to have figures like these if just for peace
of mind that if I got close to real world numbers, my plane might be one step
closer to being safe.

Thanks...

Dale Alexander
173 RGE
DMO 404