REFLECTOR: Weight and Balance Levelling

[Douglas Holub]

Hi Brian,

I'm planning on doing mine this week, too. I think I'll write down what I'm 
planning to do just FYI, and also to help organize myself.

My fuselage came with a fore-aft level line. When the work on the kit began, 
little plastic bubble levels were epoxied to the fuselage to make it easy to 
level the fuselage fore and aft. When it came time to prime the airplane, 
before I removed those little plastic levels I leveled the plane and drilled 
two small 1/16" holes which were level and about 2 feet apart located below 
the strake on the right side of the fuselage. Now when I want to level the 
airplane, I stick two 1/6" drill bits in those holes and lay a carpenter's 
level on them. (I got the idea from someone on the Reflector, but I forget 
who.)

I've already leveled the plane and used a tape measure and a plumb bob to 
find the arm of the nose wheel axle and the main gear axles. Mine is 34.5 
inches and 133.5 inches with the nose of the fuselage being zero.

The W&B procedure in my Velocity Owner's Flight Manual says to weigh the 
airplane empty with no fuel in the sump. Makes sense to me. I'm mildly 
curious to know how the CG would be affected if I ever ran the sump dry. 
I've got a 6.5 gallon sump, so it probably makes more of a difference in my 
case than in yours. I've got an old Jaguar with two selectable 12 gallon 
fuel tanks. We ran the car on one tank until it was dry. We'll drain the 
fuel currently in the Velocity into the Jaguar and a gas can and weigh the 
plane when it's empty, then use a siphon hose and the gas can to put 6.5 
gallons of fuel back into the airplane and record those weights, then fill 
the tanks up and record the weights again. I may also record the weights 
when the tanks are half full, because I think the fuel tank moment might 
change a little as the tanks are filling.

The rest is easy.  While the plane is on the scales with no fuel on board, 
I'll weigh my son and then sit him in the pilot's seat and record the 
weights, sit him in the co-pilot's seat (it is staggered about 2" back from 
the pilot's seat) and record the weights, then put him in the back seat and 
record the weights.

Doug Holub
Standard FG w/ electric nose lift


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brian Michalk" <michalk at awpi.com>
To: "Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list" <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 9:44 AM
Subject: REFLECTOR: Weight and Balance Levelling


> I'm planning on doing my weight and balance this weekend.
>
> I have not brushed up on exactly what needs to be done for the process,
> so I am starting here.
>
> 1)  I'm assuming I need to level the plane fore/aft.  What points do I
> use for levelling?  left/right is easy.
>
>
> 2) I plan on measuring with full sump as baseline.  Add fuel in
> increments.  Also do a W&B with pilots.  Of course all interior and
> accessories are installed.  The plane is close to a "flying condition".
>
> 3) A buddy is bringing over his Cessna 210, and we're going to use that
> for the fuel, and then return it after we are finished.  I have not yet
> done fuel flow testing, and did not want to mess with a full load of
> fuel in the plane.
>
> Any comments on procedure?
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