"Michael" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 15 May 2009 08:51:47 +0000, Stealth Pilot wrote:

on most light private aircraft just how critical is the weight anyway?

I agree. I would suspect that centre of gravity is more likely to cause
problems than weight for light aircraft.

The balance problem is not at all confined to light aircraft.

Actually, I suspect the ligh aircraft are less sensitive to balance problems
because of their relatively short fuselages and (usually) small capacity as
a fraction of gross weight.

The main advantage of heavy aircraft is that they are much more likely to
have their loads planned and secured--and also calculated for all of the
fuel distributions that might reasonably occur during the flight.

do you think it might be a solution in search of a problem?

Absolutely Like the AoA sensor, pilots can get by perfectly well
without this. But it's just another tool which can add to safety, and I
enjoy thinking about this stuff... especially when I should be working on
assignments. Like right now