Beechcraft Musketeer Sport III A23-19 Pilot Operating Handbook page 113

BEECHCRAFT Sport III
Musketeer A23-19, 19A
SectionVI
Wt and Bai;Equip List
INTRODUCTION TO WEIGHT AND BALANCE
The necessity for proper computation of the airplane's
weight and balance cannot be overemphasized. In the
basie design, it is planned that under normai loading the
weight distribution of pilot, passengers, baggage, and fuel
will balance the airplane for flight. Since these items are
al l variables, it is possible to concentrate weight in such a
way as to make the airplane unsafe for flight. The tactors
which must be considered in the weight and ba lance of the
airplane are the installation of equipment after the air-
plane has been weighed, trapped or unusable fuel, engine
oil, usable fuel, pilot and passenger weights, and baggage
or cargo.
In order to simplify the computation of the weight and
balance, Beech Aircraft Corporation has devised a form
called Basic Empty Weight and Balance . When the air-
plane is delivered from the tactory it will first be weighed
and the data recorded on this form . Provision has been
made on the form for Iisting additions of items to be
installed before the delivery or subtractions of items to be
removed before delivery from the "as weighed" condition.
This then represents the empty weight of the airplane.
When the airplane is first fueled, a certain amount of fuel
is trapped in the fuel lines and cells which cannot be
drained. Also, in some regimesof flight there are certain
amounts of fuel that cannot be used . The combination of
these fuel amounts is classified as unusable fuel. Also, it
has been found that all operators bring the oil level near
fuli before each flight. Thus, these items are computed
along wit h
t
he empty weight, giving a Basic Empty Weight
as a startingpoint to the pilot for each flight computation.
Once the Basic Empty Weight for a given airplane has
been established, the pilot i s then only concerned with the
October 1979
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