Anyone's airplane get fat?

tejasflyr

tejasflyr

New member
I posted this on the Facebook group so to those that read and replied there, sorry for the repeat.

I am pretty unhappy today. I weighed my baby today and she apparently has gained 123 pounds. Last actual weighing was at the factory in 1958. All subsequent W&B were only calculated.
1958 14-19-2
Factory weight 1709. (1958)
Last calculated weight 1705 (2004)
Today's weight 1832
Typical mods. Polyfiber covered and not repainted since. Nothing I can find that would have added this much weight. Either logged or observed. And I tore her apart so nothing I didn't see. Next step is to try a different set of scales.
I am pretty confident of my weighing procedure and have weighed plenty of airplanes. I even had a second A&P/IA (I am one too) re-weight with me to see if he could see any mistakes. The airplane was weighed with full fuel in the mains with the 36 gallons of usable subtracted out. I even had a second A&P/IA (I am one too) re-weight with me to see if he could see any mistakes.

I am double checking the scales this week.

So my question is for anyone who has weighed their airplane for the first time in 63 year, how much weight did it gain.
I need a sanity check.
 
Thank you. The weight gain isn't good but happy I am not crazy! :D I wonder where the weight is coming from? Any ideas? I also wonder how many other 14 series airplanes are like this, but just haven't been weighed to find out.
 
Bellanca was full of BS when they did all their speeds and statistics. Not real world. Back in those times no FAA and no GPS. Lynn the crate
 
Lynn, Agreed on the speeds. I would hope the weights were correct though. It seems like nobody ever weighs their airplane. Not sure why. Maybe they don't want the bad news.

It does look like we have the same paint job. Do you know the official color of blue on yours. Mine just says polytone, but no color. I can't seen to get a good match.
 
The colors are: Bahama Blue and Daytona White. The reason people don't weigh their planes are you need certified scales, you need to defuel the thing and you need jacks to raise and level the damn thing. All a pain in the arse! Lynn the crate
 
I tried Bahama Blue on mine and it doesn't match. So a few patches/repairs really stick out. I am not sure what they painted it with when they covered it or maybe it just faded over time.

Agreed on the scales although the actual FARs on calibration from the FAA are all over the map. I can't find it for part 91 airplanes in the FARs at all. Only for 91K, 121, 135 aircraft. 43.13 says scales should have a current calibration but no definition of what current means. Usually a calibration says when it was done, but not necessarily when due again. Either way it is a good practice to have calibrated scales annually. For the fuel issue I always weigh full mains and subtract out he usable as it is much easier and not to mention safer than de-fueling. And yes, leveling was a bit of a pain. Once I figured it out, I can do it pretty quickly. Probably only takes me 45 min to do the complete process.
 
Lynn,

I talked to another 14-19-2 owner at KOSH and his weight is almost exactly the same as ours. So that makes 3 people who have actually weighed their airplanes and not calculated it all came up at about 1830. The only people so far with lower weights are just calculated.

I know 3 data points are no conclusive but it is starting to make me wonder about the original weighing by the factory.

Mark
 
I just acquired a '46 14-13 (with baggage door, so 14-13-2 I guess). It has the Lycoming 180 HP O-360 A1D / Hartzell CS propeller STC and the electric gear system. The logs show that its factory weight out the door was 1,224 pounds. It was weighed in 1958 and that shows 1,375 pounds with the big old radios installed. It was last weighed in 1988 and that shows 1,486 pounds. I didn't believe it and did a forensic analysis of all equipment removed/added over its life, including the engine/prop conversion. I come up with 1,319 pounds. So there are 186 pounds that I can't account for. I plan to weigh it in the future. This is a head scratcher.
 
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