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Another consideration: Do you trust the empty weight of the plane being accurate. What if it is off by 40 pounds?

Has anyone had an older plane weighed and how did the empty weight and arm change? I'd like to know.

John,
You already know the answer to that one.

I do?

Well, yes, I expect it got heavier with age. Don't know which way the cg arm went.

I do know that by a careful checking of the multitude of w/b calculations made on N8526J a 100 pound mistake was made. The pilot before me was flying it at 1750 pounds, thinking he was flying at 1650 pounds. I suspected the problem when I calculated the balance and found it far aft. I found the problem, had it corrected, and because the empty weight of the plane "increased" that "moved" the cg forward to a more reasonable location.

But, no, I've not had the plane weighed and I've not read of anyone who posted the change when a Cessna 150 was reweighed (or I've forgotten if I did.)

So I would still like to know the outcome if a plane has been reweighed.

MY Luscombe picked up over 100 pounds without any listed changes over 40 years or so other than repainting, a transponder, and lighter weight radios. Who knows where it came from. Planes just get heavier as they get older.

Last week I was changing the beacon flasher on 82B
and I could not believe the amount of crud that was
in the tail section .
If this is any indication of what is in the rest of the belly I can see how.

Sigh! The same can be said of pilots!

First Please don't take my soap box as an attempt to be negative. I would like people that are asking the questions to look at the other side of the issue, that is being over gross weight. There are dangers, Specifically to include stall spin accidents due to increased stall speed due to increased weight etc. Your aircraft is modified legally, has the FAA approval paperwork and with the STC, flight testing and the engineering analysis (Not to mention more horse power!!:) we all like that!). As for the "Test" pilot comment, yes we are all "test Pilots" when we go outside the envelope. The notation about Va, yes as we get heavier the Va goes up. That is my point. While Va goes up we are less likely to overstress the aircraft, but are much closer to stall. Most people don't even calculate Va, much less pay attention to it. While our discussion was on "overweight issues, Light-weight issues exist that are related to Va. When you put that 90 pound student in the aircraft, with 5 to 8 gallons of fuel for a solo flight, what is the new Va speed? In my airplane under these conditions, Va=86 mph (Traffic Pattern airspeeds). Weight and Balance covers both heavy weight and light weight, which affect performance. Excess horse power/perfomance is something us 100hp C-150 drivers don't have, but you big nose guys do. As far as your "test flights" HECK Yes! Pass them on, that is part of what this whole web page is about. Tell us your stories and experinces (Good, Bad and the ones that scare us). Please leave the Box and microphone out for everyone to participate. I also DO look forward to your posts.. Keep them coming.