Weight & Balance (2.5)

 2.5 hours

***NOTE!  I later found that all the weights I measured here were totally wrong, when I re-weighed the plane in June 2022.  But this is still a good overview of the process at least.***

I've been waiting to get this done for quite a while; it's one of the last "admin" items I needed to do in order to get the plane inspected, and I was also very curious to find out what my plane weighs!

Once the prop was installed, the next task was to measure the plane.  I propped up the tail to put it in a level flight attitude, and then got to work.  The datum, as far as W&B is concerned, is the tip of the spinner.  I taped a plumb bob to it and marked a spot on the floor directly below.  Then I marked the following points, on each side of the plane: the wing leading edge, main gear axles, wing trailing edge, and the tailwheel axle.

For each pair of points, I connected my marks with a laser level so I could mark where along the centerline that fuselage station was.  Since I had marked the spinner tip and the tailwheel, I had two good points to also connect with the laser, so I knew where the centerline was.

Finally, I measured from my spinner tip (datum) mark, along the centerline, to each of the other points.

Here are the measurements I came up with:

Leading Edge: 52.2"

Main Gear: 55.1"

Trailing Edge: 106.2" (so the wing chord was 54.0" which matches the plans)

Tailwheel: 217.1"

Next was to weigh the plane.  I was not able to get my hands on any kind of official certified aircraft scales anywhere, so I bought three scales on Amazon instead.  They have a capacity of 440 lbs each, and as far as I can tell they're accurate.  My wife and I each weighed ourselves on a calibrated scale, and then both stood together  on each of these scales to see if our combined weight showed up correctly.  It was within 1.5 lbs on each scale, and our combined weight is about 290 lbs, which is pretty close to the weight on each main gear tire.  So based on all that I'm confident that these scales were good to go for this task!

Anyway, long story short here are the results (with the tail raised so the plane was level):

Left Main Gear: 291 lbs

Right Main Gear: 308 lbs

Tailwheel: 38 lbs

Total: 637 lbs

I'm pretty happy with that total weight!

Next came the W&B report.  Here's what I wrote up to submit with my airworthiness paperwork: