What does your Savannah weigh?

[fallowdeer]

Hi all

 

Interested in what everyone's Savannah weighs.

 

Redid mine after changing tyres to 21/800 mains and 600/6 nosewheel, now weighs 305kg giving me 255kg useful load.

 

Peter

 

 

[eightyknots]

Hi allInterested in what everyone's Savannah weighs.

 

Redid mine after changing tyres to 21/800 mains and 600/6 nosewheel, now weighs 305kg giving me 255kg useful load.

 

Peter

Despite what ICP says about the XL or S models (i.e. that they are essentially the same weight as the VG) I am somewhat sceptical. Most tend to reach 305 kg without the larger wheels. XLs and Ss seem to pan out close to 315-320 kg so it seems ...and probably a few kg more with larger wheels.

 

 

[dan3111]

My VG Sannah no fuel but head sets my vg is fitted with xl ring mount and cowl and is 305 kt with using 3 x proper race car scales with lcd readout . Most bath room sales are out when you start getting over 100kgs on each scale so you can ezy be out 15 kg on you tare weight . A lot of xl and xls are 320 to 330 kg it all adds up the more crap you put in it .

 

 

[Guy s]

My Savannah S weight in at 307 kgs but reckon by the time I sort a few things out on it, it will be closer to 310 kgs.

 

 

[eightyknots]

Depending on who you read (on other forums) people who do not paint their Zenith CH-701s seem to save between 12 and 25 lbs of weight, which approximately 5-12 kg in our language. This is quite considerable, especially at the upper end.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Mine is 321kg but I put about 10kg too much of paint and undercoat on mine. I have the 600 size wheels, 4 tanks, large 72 inch prop and extended battery cables that are quite large. So I think mine could have been around the 310kg without all that extra paint. But still pretty good with mine being 600kg now with the mod. I have 280kg of load. There are not many aircraft in this category with that capacity

 

 

[eightyknots]

Mine is 321kg but I put about 10kg too much of paint and undercoat on mine. I have the 600 size wheels, 4 tanks, large 72 inch prop and extended battery cables that are quite large. So I think mine could have been around the 310kg without all that extra paint. But still pretty good with mine being 600kg now with the mod. I have 280kg of load. There are not many aircraft in this category with that capacity

Hi Mark, what do you think is the minimum amount of paint weight that you can get away with?

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

My problem was I used a 2 pack undercoat and I used way too much as I was going to sand most of it off....well that turned out to be a nightmare. The 2pack was soooo bloody hard I couldnt sand it back by hand and to use a machine it would have done too much damage so I rubbed it by hand as best as I could but probably still twice as much on there as there should have been. Makes a great base for the paint but was a real issue and added I would say over the whole aircraft about 10kg. The rest of the paint was fine it was the undercoat that was the culprit

 

 

[John Nooyen]

Mine is an early savannah (Standard) with slats. 294KG empty, as on the last W & Balance.

 

 

[erd72]

My Savannah S empty is 308 kg painted with safety parachute, tx, Radio, Efis, e props propeller with carbon spacer, 21 inches tyres with beringer rim, Li FE PO4 battery.

 

 

[eightyknots]

My Savannah S empty is 308 kg painted with safety parachute, tx, Radio, Efis, e props propeller with carbon spacer, 21 inches tyres with beringer rim, Li FE PO4 battery.

Just 308 kg is pretty impressive considering that it includes large wheels and a 'chute! What kind of engine do you have on your S?

 

 

[erd72]

Just 308 kg is pretty impressive considering that it includes large wheels and a 'chute! What kind of engine do you have on your S?

Rotax 912 S, the gain with the propeller was at least 4 kg.

 

 

[Neil_S]

Hi allInterested in what everyone's Savannah weighs.

 

Redid mine after changing tyres to 21/800 mains and 600/6 nosewheel, now weighs 305kg giving me 255kg useful load.

 

Peter

Mine is factory built S, Rotax 912 ULS, no chute, 6" tyres, 310kg empty weight.

 

Cheers,

 

Neil

 

 

[g2omer]

Hi, i just made my w &b on my savannah vg: 314 kg. No chute.

 

Francois

 

 

 

[rankamateur]

Despite what ICP says about the XL or S models (i.e. that they are essentially the same weight as the VG) I am somewhat sceptical. Most tend to reach 305 kg without the larger wheels. XLs and Ss seem to pan out close to 315-320 kg so it seems ...and probably a few kg more with larger wheels.

Don't bag ICP too hard. There are a lot more fairly standard VGs around and some fairly bloated XLs and S models, more toys more weight, simple. I am as guilty as any, but a 914 and an airmaster prop with a couple of auto pilot servos and a tyre upgrade, radio and transponder, AH and card compass, PLB, GPS , iPad, backup iPad, External GPS receiver. And so it tends to go on. Things have changed a lot over the last decade or so.

 

 

[rankamateur]

Mine is factory built S, Rotax 912 ULS, no chute, 6" tyres, 310kg empty weight.Cheers,

 

Neil

And a nice paint job!

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Its hard to resist isnt it Steve :)

 

 

[rmorton]

Has anyone here tried to save weight? Here in France the MTOW is very tight at 472.5KG (I think). I am tempted to just bolt everything together as per the book and see what it comes out as but if there is an opportunity to save weight I would like to know. So Far I can think of the following:

 

Carbon fibre engine cowl, wing tips, tail and fin tips.

 

Berringer wheels (way too expensive at this stage though.

 

Don't paint it but use a wonder product after polishing the Ali - not keen on this and will probably paint the lot

 

Go for an all in one Efis type thing and minimum instruments - maybe later when I save up my pocket money again.

 

Battery

 

I am assuming that those figures above are for extended range fuel tanks ?

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

If you have the 4 fuel tanks its about 12kg more in weight I think for the extra 2 tanks..also here in OZ most have the extended baggage area so that adds a little but really you cant make any mods to what is supplied in the kit to save weight. It is what it is. Just keep the paint very light and use std wheels and tyres and use some sort of single panel EFIS and thats probably the best you can do to keep the aircraft the lightest you can

 

Mark

 

 

[erd72]

Hi Richard,

 

To save weight, the fastest and cheapest is to use an e-props propeller instead of a duc swirl or flash (if you do not have already a propeller)

 

Helices E-PROPS : DURANDAL 100 pour Rotax 912S 914

 

Mine is à 100 M, as i remember the weight is under 3 kg and the saving is around 4 kg

 

Without painting, i know a savannah s under 290 kg with parachute

 

This one : Construction de mon Savannah S

 

You can follow the construction with many pictures

 

Regarding your proposal "Carbon fibre engine cowl, wing tips, tail and fin tips." it is a good way, if somebody would like to creat this parts, i already know few guys interested to buy thisese carbon components

 

 

[rmorton]

Hi Richard,To save weight, the fastest and cheapest is to use an e-props propeller instead of a duc swirl or flash (if you do not have already a propeller)

 

Helices E-PROPS : DURANDAL 100 pour Rotax 912S 914

 

Mine is à 100 M, as i remember the weight is under 3 kg and the saving is around 4 kg

 

Without painting, i know a savannah s under 290 kg with parachute

 

This one : Construction de mon Savannah S

 

You can follow the construction with many pictures

 

Regarding your proposal "Carbon fibre engine cowl, wing tips, tail and fin tips." it is a good way, if somebody would like to creat this parts, i already know few guys interested to buy thisese carbon components

There are some lovely pictures there and I love the aluminium finish, my doubt is the amount of polishing to achieve and maintain that.

 

The weight of that prop is incredible, I will certainly put that on my list.

 

I am really interested in moulding carbon and other composites and my first thought when I saw the cowl was to make a mould from it and have a go. I will certainly let you know if I succeed.

 

If only the Euro zone would agree to up the limit to MTOW of 600kg for ULMs life would be sooo much easier!

 

 

[facthunter]

You can lighten a Continental 0-200 or prior similar model, Like C- 95 16F by removing starter and generator and alloy prop and fit NO starter, small belt driven alternator, smaller battery, wooden prop, bronze breather elbow and make alloy cover for gauze filter, instead of dangerous two piece bronze one. The 0-200D is already lightened well enough. Nev

 

 

[erd72]

There are some lovely pictures there and I love the aluminium finish, my doubt is the amount of polishing to achieve and maintain that.The weight of that prop is incredible, I will certainly put that on my list.

I am really interested in moulding carbon and other composites and my first thought when I saw the cowl was to make a mould from it and have a go. I will certainly let you know if I succeed.

 

If only the Euro zone would agree to up the limit to MTOW of 600kg for ULMs life would be sooo much easier!

It seems that to keep the mirror finish you need to spend around 4 hours every 6 months.

CArbon and cowl made of carbon are a good solution to save weight, thansk to let me know how it progess.

 

For sure everybody would like to have a MTOW of 600 kg in france but you know this categoty already exist CS--LSA, but it is not the same rules...

 

 

[rmorton]

It seems that to keep the mirror finish you need to spend around 4 hours every 6 months.CArbon and cowl made of carbon are a good solution to save weight, thansk to let me know how it progess.

For sure everybody would like to have a MTOW of 600 kg in france but you know this categoty already exist CS--LSA, but it is not the same rules...

For a polished aluminium finish I have seen this:

 

Stewart Systems. EverShield Protective Finish

 

but can't seem to buy it anywhere.

 

What type of licence do you need for the CS-LSA in France? It would be so much better for all if we could harmonise across the world...

 

 

[planesmaker]

How do you know how much your paint weighs? I would like to suggest it is not that much, having stripped a skyfox of its fabric and paint I was interested to see how much it weighed, 6.5kg for the whole aircraft including fabric and coatings.