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I suppose I qualify at 150 lbs.
Std 360, battery in the footwell, Hartzel CS prop.
Generally, I make a point to NOT have all fuel in the header on a
lightweight landing. Having it 1/4 to 1/2 full is safe enough.
What happens is that I run out of aft stick travel in the flare and will
have a hard landing if I'm not very close to wheels down.
The further foreward the CG, the faster the landing speed must be.
Mostly, it's just hard on the tires.
The problem was aggravated by the Hartzel AD requiring a beefed up prop
hub. The prop shop claimed only a 1/2 lb increase but it felt like more to
me. I think the new hub puts the prop a little further forward as
well.
Also, check that you actually get full elevator travel according to the
build manual. Those last few degrees of up elevator are critical
here.
An obvious solution might be to move the battery aft but the aft CG range
has other problematic issues as well. This way gives me the widest
utility.
Once again, the higher performance Lancair design is a wonderful thing but
requires a pilot to do more planning than flying that spam can where you can
be more careless about loading.
.
Mark Ravinski
360 1447 hrs 1077 of it mine.
PS - Is there a really skinny flier out there that was aloft with a heavy
prop, no baggage and header fuel only? How was the landing? Has
everyone calculated the minimum pilot weight to stay within the forward
CG?
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