[Jerry]

Jerry on April 7, 2021 at 8:32 am #20595

Steve: This is Jerry Brady and after reading about the owner of the PA28-140 who wanted to move the battery aft, I wanted to comment that I owned a PA28-160 which had the battery aft of the aft cabin bulkhead. It was a 1961 model, S/N 151. Looking in the Parts catalog on page 3E20 it shows the external power supply installation and the battery , and shows it aft of station 156 which appears to be the aft cabin bulkhead. So Piper did install a battery in the tailcone which would be data to move it VIA a 337. As you mentioned would the Canadian’s accept that ?

[STEVE]

STEVE on February 10, 2021 at 8:42 am #20519

Martin,
Do a weight and balance computation to determine what adding 1 pound of weight to the aft fuselage bulkhead would do for your loading?
I haven’t found any service publication from Piper addressing the addition of weight to that bulkhead, but Cessna published a bulleting (SB02-53-01) that details the installation of lead weights to the new 182T and T182T aft bulkhead to bring those airplanes back into the wt and bal envelope when the only the front seats and full fuel is the loading.
I doubt whether you’ll be able to get anyone to approve the installation of a weight back there but the publication of the bulletin shows that steps often have to be taken to keep the CG within the envelope.
Let me know what you decide to do.
Steve

Attachments:

• SB02-53-01WeightInTail182TT182T.pdf

[Martin Grechan]

Martin Grechan on February 8, 2021 at 12:21 pm #20511

Thanks for your reply Steve. Yes it’s the latter. The empty weight C of G makes the aircraft hose heavy when only the front pilot and passenger seats are occupied. The battery is presently located under the rear seat. We were wishing to find an STC to relocate it further aft (behind the baggage compartment) in the fuselage. If we were able to place it at least 2 feet further aft we would gain another inch of C of G moment. It looks like we’re going to have to rely on our own limited STC to rectify this issue. The other least expensive method would be to load up the rear baggage compartment to the maximum allowable weight (using lead shot or sandbags) to compensate for allowing two average weight-size American (Canadian) males to fly.
Just as an antidote to this conversation I was a pilot-engineer on a AS315 Aerospatiale “Lama” that had a minimum pilot weight of 170 pounds when flying solo. At the time I weighed 145 lbs. So every time I flew alone I had the bring a 15 lbs. leather sac of lead shot to place under my seat. Otherwise the tail rotor guard would always touch the ground first before the skids would touch when I came in for landing with a pronounced nose-high attitude. I’m sad to say that I don’t have that problem anymore (245 lbs. – I completely lost my girlish figure)…lol

Attachments:

• AS315Lama.jpg

[STEVE]

STEVE on February 8, 2021 at 11:01 am #20509

Hi Martin;
I did not find an approval to move the battery. And although I searched through the Piper PA 28 manual I have on hand, I couldn’t locate a definitive location for the battery in all 140s. The 140E Pilots manual says the battery in under the baggage compt floor.
When you say the airplane is nose heavy, are you saying you run out of elevator power in the landing flare?
Or are you saying that you have to run the pitch trim to the max nose up limit to trim for level in cruise flight?
Does the current aircraft weight and balance report show that the empty CG is near the forward limit, and that with passengers in the front seats the CG is out of the forward limit?
Please get back to me with answers to these questions.
Steve

[Martin Grechan]

Martin Grechan on February 4, 2021 at 6:44 pm #20493

We have a PA-28-140 which is nose heavy and wish to know if there is a kit to move the battery further aft.