Shedding the weight

HeavyLoad · Post by **HeavyLoad** » Wed May 23, 2018 1:02 am

I looking for a thread that has ideas for shedding the pounds. Just weighed the M5 and think she's needs to go on a diet.

Floorboards? what options are there? I still have wood floorboards.

Any idea what the extended fuel tanks weigh?

Minimal Upholstery?

YELLOWMAULE · Post by **YELLOWMAULE** » Wed May 23, 2018 2:44 pm

This is a Pandora's box. Once you open this door, it's tough to close it!
How far are you willing to go?

RT · Post by RT » Wed May 23, 2018 4:37 pm

How much did that M5 that did so well at Valdez weigh?

DeltaRomeo · Post by **DeltaRomeo** » Wed May 23, 2018 5:38 pm

It was still loaded with all his gear since he arrived at the airport while his heat was staging...

snaproll · Post by **snaproll** » Wed May 23, 2018 7:42 pm

DeltaRomeo wrote:It was still loaded with all his gear since he arrived at the airport while his heat was staging...

That's the thing that told me how far I have to go as an M5 pilot.

pilot · Post by **pilot** » Wed May 23, 2018 9:02 pm

snaproll wrote:
DeltaRomeo wrote:It was still loaded with all his gear since he arrived at the airport while his heat was staging...
That's the thing that told me how far I have to go as an M5 pilot.

Pretty great that Chet rolled in there loaded to the gills and almost handed their hat to them with a short-wing M5. I know the M7 that won was a great combo of plane and pilot, but it just goes to show you that if you know your plane you are way ahead of the curve.

Victor Gennaro · Post by **Victor Gennaro** » Thu May 24, 2018 5:06 pm

Besides being a pilot I am a cyclist. I found it was a lot cheaper and easier to take some weight off of me instead of the bicycle. I suspect it may be true on the plane.

VA Maule · Post by **VA Maule** » Thu May 24, 2018 7:56 pm

I'ave often heard that " The best performance modification that a pilot can make to an airplane is to install less pilot "

Kirk · Post by **Kirk** » Sun May 27, 2018 5:07 am

Actually what I would say, the best performance enhancement for the Maule is pilot proficiency. Short field work is very technique sensitive.

Kirk

Hale-Yes · Post by **Hale-Yes** » Sun May 27, 2018 11:03 am

I am re-doing the interior of my MT 7-235. I pulled the floor boards and they were in pretty bad shape, bowed and broken. I made a new set out of aircraft plywood, using the old ones as a general guide, but the original work product was so poor, I spent a lot of time fitting them properly. Now after thinking about it for awhile, I am going to use them for patterns and make a new set from carbon fiber laminated Nomex honeycomb panel. Its available in 1/4" X 48" X 96" sheets. The full sheet weighs 6.4 lbs. but i'll only use about 4/5 of it. Its much stronger and lighter than plywood and it's also much more expensive. $1,057.75 per sheet. It's available from several sites on the web, but most don't sell large enough panels to use for our floor boards. I chose APC Composites. <store> If anyone finds it cheaper in full sheets let me know.

Mountain Doctor · Post by **Mountain Doctor** » Mon May 28, 2018 12:40 pm

Victor Gennaro wrote:Besides being a pilot I am a cyclist. I found it was a lot cheaper and easier to take some weight off of me instead of the bicycle. I suspect it may be true on the plane.

+100 on this.

The other cheapest way is to sell the bicycle and buy a lighter/better perfoming one. I suspect this applies to airplanes too

zamfire · Post by **zamfire** » Mon Jun 17, 2019 7:00 pm

I'm all for for saving weight. I draw the line at $1000 floorboards.
You could lay up your own carbon/foam sandwich panels, or Kevlar for a fraction of that. Less bragging rights but more money left over for other improvements.

bobguhr · Post by **bobguhr** » Tue Jun 18, 2019 6:42 am

Randy Apling owns Carbon Concepts. Not sure of the cost but he has done Maule floor boards, wing tips and cowls, might also be working on a belly pod. http://www.carbonconceptsak.com/home.html

crbnunit · Post by **crbnunit** » Tue Jun 18, 2019 10:14 am

Listen to Kurt. Talk to anyone with a dedicated 4x4 off road truck or race bike... Once you start modifying things, it is really, really hard to stop! It can become an expensive addiction pretty quickly! LOL! You start with floorboards, then start looking at your panel, that danged glare shield, seat pans, does that door glass really need to be that thick? Wonder if I could make aluminum door frames? I can live without a vacuum system! I've head paint weighs about 30lbs! I don't need no stinking paint! That radio will save me 5lbs! ... $$$

1:1 Scale · Post by **1:1 Scale** » Wed Jun 19, 2019 7:56 am

I've got my M4 down to a bare frame at the moment with the top skins off the (M5) wings. Wanting to run wires for Aeroleds, I figured I'd buy the harnesses from Aircraft Spruce. The shortest harness they offer is 25'. They didn't seem to want to tell me what style pins I'm going to need to shorten the harnesses. "You can just coil the extra harness in the wing roots..."

Shyeah, like I'm going to carry around an extra 20' of wiring I don't need!

So now I'm going to have to make two separate orders from Spruce (I'm sure there will be plenty) so I can get the harnesses, then order the pieces required to shorten them and run them through the required ribs.

Shedding the weight

Shedding the weight

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