- Joined
- Jul 4, 2016
- Messages
- 240
- Reaction score
- 30
How many of you Cherokee owners struggle with keeping their early Cherokee in proper Weight and Balance. How many need more than half of their baggage compartment capacity in ballast to stay in balance. I used to have this problem with my 1963 Cherokee 160. I needed 100 to 135 lbs of ballast to be in W&B with tabs fuel. I had the aircraft weighed and W&B checked no help. Then I was talking to another Cherokee owner at our airport. He had the same problem. He told me after talking with Piper Aircraft repeatedly he found out that his AFM had a W&B revision in the late 60s. He was using the numbers in the original AFM as was I. I called Piper myself and found that my AFM received the same update and had an expanded W&B envelope. I confirmed the new numbers with Piper by serial number and with the new numbers I can fly two larger than standard people in the front seats with full fuel and not be out of balance. I took out all of the ballast I had in my baggage compartment and she flies great. Double check your AFM for updates and see if that helps your W&B. Piper was more than happy to send me a copy by email of the new W&B graph which also confirmed the accuracy of the new numbers. I spent the money on a new AFM and found several new revisions to my AFM, one of which included a baggage compartment weight increase from 125lbs to 200lbs. Howle this helps some of you.
