I would like to make a more accurate weight and balance calculation sheet I can fill out in the flight planning stage to make sure that, obviously, I’m within limits. The aircraft I use has nothing like this, just the POH and the latest weight report. On the weight report, however, I can’t find any information about the lever arms of the front and rear seats and the baggage compartment. I don’t want to rely solely on the POH as it is almost 40 years old and of course doesn’t reflect the current weight and balance (the copy available on the flying clubs system also appears to be for a different registration). I also don’t want to use calculators on SkyDemon etc without first entering the real world figures for my specific aircraft.
I will admit that I’m a bit rusty with this as I’ve always been flying a four seater with no baggage and only one or two POB from runways that are plenty long enough. Next week I’d like to take two passengers and some baggage flying, so will need to be a bit more conscious.
Below is the latest weight report for the aircraft, a PA28-181. Unfortunately it’s in German. My German is conversational at best but maybe a German forum member can help me to avoid misunderstandings.
This is simply the latest mass and balance data for that particular aircraft.
While it contains some data on the centre of mass limits (2.25-2.35 metres at 1,156 kg) this is not complete, the PA28-181 has a forward limit that changes with mass.
The only really important bits of information on this sheet are at the bottom:
– empty mass – 727.0kg
– lever arm / C of M position: 2.226 m aft of datum
– total moment: 1,618.29
The lever arms for your calculation are then in section six of the POH.
Great, thanks for your help. In this case, the moment is measured in kg/m?
Well kg.m but yes.
Decide on one set of unit for mass and one set for length and then stick to it.
