Weight and balance, ballast, trim when flying alone

" wrote in
:

On Jan 15, 9:20 pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
I never burn fuel from a single side at a time, so I cannot comment
on that. Both the Bonanza and the Baron let you draw fuel from both
tanks, and that's how I leave it set.

If you are heavy and alone in the plane, it has a distinct tendency
to bank towards the heavy side. The Bonanza does this, anyway, so
it's harder to notice, but the Baron will do it, only not as
obviously. When I first started flying these aircraft I noticed odd
banking tendencies and it took a while for it to dawn on me that the
aircraft was simply loaded unevenly.

You can run one tank dry in a Bonanza and have the other at 35 gallons
and only need 1/4 twist of the aileron trim to keep things balanced. I
haven't tried draining one side tank and tip tank, though, but that's
not the recommended procedure IAW the STC, so I won't be trying it.

I doubt there is a Bonanza flying with a "Both" selection.


Bad idea in a low wing airplane. It's going to favor one tank until it's
dry and then your engine will quit with one tank nearly full!


Bertie