Okay, here's a change from the guys complaining about trying to fit their 220# bulk into an Ercoupe.
I have the opposite problem (problem?). I'm a real feather-weight at 125-130 lbs. soaking wet. And I'm flying a 415D whose empty weight is pretty low to start with (898 lbs). Through a series of circumstances, I've rarely, up to now, flown with anything less than an extra 190 lbs. of weight in the right seat. I'm finding that, with just me aboard, if I fly final at the standard 75MPH, I waste about 1000 feet of runway floating in ground effect. Yikes! Standard advice would be 'slow down.' However, I've seen and heard the dire warnings about slowing a non-split-elevator 415D too very far below 75, lest there be nothing left for the flare. I *think* that running out of elevator authority should be somewhat independent of gross weight, as it doesn't really lift the nose so much as alter a fairly balanced mass's pitch angle. So I don't want to get myself into deep guano either that way or by getting trapped by sink. I know I have to experiment a bit, but is there anyone reading this who has flown a 415D at low loads and has some numbers that they've used? (By the way, yesterday at 60F and about 500 MSL, I was seeing 750FPM on a C85 at 75MPH.) Greg
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