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By James Chan
#1184529
Having flown this plane fully loaded hundreds of times, I did my usual W & B calculations from the usual calculator on our flying group website.

On the day of flying I was told the shorter cross runway was the only one available for use that day.

Then someone in our group pointed out the plane I was going to fly was almost 200 lbs heavier than the other ones in our fleet!

I was incredibly surprised by this, partly because I reckoned I had taken off without any incident on the shorter runway before on this plane, but I then realised I may have used another nearly identical plane in our fleet, also fully loaded on this runway. I also discovered the W & B data on the website hadn't been updated with the new figures after it got re-painted.

As a result I could have been quite overweight if I wasn't careful.......

Making sure I refuelled less, the flight proceeded without incident.

What I learnt:

1. Every Cessna 172P, even if they look the same and are equipped with pretty much the same stuff, has a different empty weight, and can differ by some 150 - 200 lbs.

2. Not to blindly rely on a calculator which I've used hundreds of times with a pre-filled in empty weight, but to properly look at the aircraft's weight schedule after something has been done on it that could affect its W & B.
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By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1185197
Cheap lead paint......
By James Chan
#1190579
Well we had a repaint using the same colours used on the Boeing Dreamliner:

Image

However I'm now told that the weight may be wrong, so it may go back in for another re-weigh.
Last edited by James Chan on Fri Aug 09, 2013 2:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By Rob P
#1190682
Purely curiosity.

Why is the NWFC part of the registration blanked out?

Rob P
By James Chan
#1190849
I guess I sometimes see people blanking out registration numbers, particularly with cars, on the Internet and on TV.
I'm not entirely sure why.
Maybe it makes it more fun to have people guessing what the registrations could be! 8)
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By Merlin83b
#1190857
I can think of reasons with cars, or rather I can think of reasons that I might want to find a registration if I were of a dishonest persuasion ;)

Doesn't apply to aircraft, though.
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By Flintstone
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1191394
I've never understood the blanking of car registrations. If a criminal wants to clone a car he just has to stand by the roadside or walk around a car park to see a number. I think it's a matter of someone doing it once on eBay and thousands of numpties following suit, a bit like the 'advertised elsewhere so I have the right to end the sale' thing. Of course you do precious but then you have that right without needing to say so :roll:
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By Rob P
#1191493
Quite so. There are far easier ways to source yourself a car registration than trawling the internet until you find one. But as you say it's a trend and now everyone and his dog do it.

Dreadful to see it spreading here

Rob P
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By Merlin83b
#1191712
Shouldn't be hard to work out, James. Just have a think on who might want to see your registration, and why you might want them to see a different registration. Flintstone speaks sense, unless you have something rare it isn't hard to find a match.