Went Flying Today......2018

aftCG said:
Dang. People say a Citabria looks"wrong" without wheel pants. I don't really agree with that, but that Christen Eagle needs some pants
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I remember coming around the corner, seeing it there and thinking the same thing! Get some pants on that Eagle!
 
I have yet to put the pants back on my plane. We removed them so I could fly with my CFI for the TW endorsement, and I just never put them back on. My plane seems to be about 5 mph slower than I would expect, even with the O-200. One of these days, I'll put them back on and see how much difference they make.
 
Um
JimParker256 said:
I have yet to put the pants back on my plane. We removed them so I could fly with my CFI for the TW endorsement, and I just never put them back on. My plane seems to be about 5 mph slower than I would expect, even with the O-200. One of these days, I'll put them back on and see how much difference they make.
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Um... Maybe I’m about to learn something. Why did you have to take your pants off to get your TW endorsement?
 
Short answer - to reduce empty weight and allow for more fuel to be carried, allowing longer training flights. Insurance required 10 hours of dual, so longer flights were better for both me and the CFI.

Longer answer: I bought THIS airplane precisely because it had the highest useful load of any Citabria I could find. (The fact that it was local, and inexpensive was all gravy – I would have spent more $$ and bought a nicer airplane if I could have found one with larger UL...) Why? Well, I'm a big guy (over 300 lbs) and to get the tailwheel endorsement, I needed to fly with a tailwheel instructor. The only guy available to me locally weighs about 200 lbs. That doesn't leave a lot left for fuel, so every little bit helps.

My 7ECA, thanks to the O-200, oleo gear, and minimal equipment, weighs 1027 lbs empty, and thus has 623 pounds of useful load (GW is 1650 lbs). We know this because I had it weighed, and a new W&B form computed. (I do this with every airplane I buy – when you're my size, you don't want to take chances with W&B limitations!) Since the mechanic had removed the pants to grease the wheel bearings, and since he knew I was interested in maximizing the UL for my training, he left them off for the W&B. So, the pants were off when the plane was delivered to me, and I decided I'd rather have the extra 2.3 gallons of fuel for training. It's on my "to do" list to put them back on the plane... The wheel pants and mounting hardware weigh exactly 14 lbs, and move the CG forward only 0.2 inches.

PS _ Oddly enough, when we weighed the plane, we found that it was exactly 14 lbs heavier than the old W&B form claimed. That 14 lbs is exactly the same as what we saved by removing the wheel pants... What are the odds of that happening?

PPS – If I had done my TW endorsement at the local aerobatics / tailwheel school, we would have been stuck flying really short flights. Their Decathlons are WAY heavier, and even though they have the higher GW (1750), the useful load is almost 100 lbs less than my 7ECA's. We would probably have been required to remove the wheel pants to gain enough UL to be legal for even 30 minutes at a time...
 
Damn, I'd give up a kidney for a 623 lb useful load. That's almost exactly 100 pounds more than I have. No doubt, if you need useful load get a Champ.

Hmm. I wonder how much a kidney weighs?

Good on you for weighing your plane. I've watched many mechanics doing alterations to W&B and they typically don't look comfortable with simple free body diagrams. Pass the plane around for 30-50 years and there's bound to be some error creeping in.
 
aftCG said:
Damn, I'd give up a kidney for a 623 lb useful load. That's almost exactly 100 pounds more than I have. No doubt, if you need useful load get a Champ.

Hmm. I wonder how much a kidney weighs?

Good on you for weighing your plane. I've watched many mechanics doing alterations to W&B and they typically don't look comfortable with simple free body diagrams. Pass the plane around for 30-50 years and there's bound to be some error creeping in.
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When I got the dual to get my biennial after 20 year hiatus, I was lucky to find an instructor w/ a 7GCBC of modern mfg. He flew off his 1900 ft grass strip and weighed 300+. I wanted a 150 hp Citabria but most sub 40K examples need fabric or spars or something. So I happened on a restored 7FC-EC for less and bit. No regrets. Instructors ‘94 model was NICE and I asked why he didn’t remove the pants. He said it looks wrong without ‘em.😄 so does mine. But mine are lighter than that and god knows I’d remove something for UL increase. That said, even full of gas it flies better with a 200 pound passenger! Longer getting airborne but nice and stable.
 
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