• Become a Subscribing Member today!

    PiperForum.com is a vibrant community of Piper owners and pilots with over 1,500+ active members.

    Access to PiperForum.com is subscription based. Subscriptions are only $49.99/year or $6.99/month to gain access to this great community and unmatched library of Piper knowledge.

    Why become a Subscribing Member?

    • Swap technical knowledge, plan meetups and sell planes/parts.
    • We host technical knowledge of general aviation topics and specific topics on J3-Cubs, Cherokees, Comanches, Pacers and more.
    • In addition to an instant community of pilots for you, PiperForum.com is a library of technical topics, airplane builds, images, technical manuals, technical documents and more.

    Become a Subscribing Member and access PiperForum.com in full!

    Subscribe Now

Reply to thread

Advertise with us
vref
Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

A lower total weight doesn't necessarily at all mean less strain on the airplane. That's wasn't at all what I was implying. Full tanks and a light cabin will load the wings, reducing strain on the spar, especially during landings. MZFW comes to mind.

Va is a function of AOA and it decreases with a decrease in weight because of the wings relative angle to its critical AOA. It has nothing to do with how quickly the airplane can be accelerated.

When light, you must fly at a higher AOA (lower IAS) to have the same angular difference from the critical AOA as you would when the airplane was loaded to max gross.


Back
Top