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

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.

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


You're absolutely correct.

There's nothing in the POH about it. Any BPPP grads here care to chime
in?

Dan