Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:
Mark T. Dame wrote:
The intricacy's of weight and balance similar to the knowledge test
questions. Load, fly, unload, fly, refuel, load, fly unload, refuel....
what's your weight, where's your CG, what about if you have to hold, when
will you reach bingo fuel and where will your CG be then? Talk to a Bonanza
owner about CG changes with fuel burn.
Additionally, your CG probably changes when you retract your gear.
That's one of my commercial DE's pet points.


While being technically correct (if he says so), what difference does it make?
Are you going to fly with the gear down to keep the CG in the same place that
you used to figure your W&B?

Cocktail party facts....

Not at all. We're talking about a commercial pilot checkride. As such,
you need to know more than for a private certificate. The point of the
exercise is to show the examiner that you understand these concepts and
actually do it.

Additionally, you do have the gear in both positions in flight. You
have it down at take off. You need to make sure that putting it up
isn't going to put your CG outside of the envelope right after take off
when you are still low, slow, and nose high. This could lead to a
departure stall. When you are landing, you put your gear down well
before you touch down, and you will be low and slow on final. The
difference between gear up and down may be a factor.

Now, as Jose pointed out, on the Arrow it's not very significant, but
that doesn't mean that it's that way for all planes.

Finally, as I said, we're talking about a checkride. Checkrides often
have you do things that you may not do in your day to day flying, but
you need to know and understand in case you need it. In any case, I'm
just giving advice on what to expect on the checkride.


-m
--
## Mark T. Dame
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