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Rick,
For what it's worth, I have my battery
(I only have one, so it's big) on the firewall and I have a
Lycoming IO-540 on my plane, which I believe is heavier than an IO-550. I
also have a metal Hartzell prop and a pre-oiler (~10 lbs) mounted to the
firewall. We wanted to try a forward battery for all the reasons
Brent mentioned and made provisions to move it back if it became
necessary. Other than putting oxygen and halon bottles as far
back as I could, I didn't do anything special to balance my plane.
When we put it on the scales, it penciled out fine. With just me in
it and a light fuel load, I'm right at forward CG. Anything I add in the
way of pax, fuel or especially baggage helps move me more into the
envelope. To give myself a pad, I usually carry a small tool bag under the
floor in the baggage area that probably weighs around 20 lbs.
I normally land with full flaps and
full nose up trim. I approach at 80 knots, slow to 75 crossing the
fence and touch down around 70 and the plane handles fine.
The point is you may be able to mount
at least one battery up forward without unbalancing yourself. If you
happen to plan on a composite prop too, you should have no problem with your
CG.
Skip Slater
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