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So I spoke to Bob a couple of years ago at OSH, asking his thoughts on putting six seats in a BH. He thought it was certainly doable, though he said the key concern would be a tail-heavy c.g., especially as I am planning on an O-360. It was not long after the BH LSA had come out, and I had taken note of it's lack of flaps. I live in Ohio, so I don't have to do the sand bar thing, and was curious as to what kind of weight I might save by eliminating them. Bob said I'd save about 40 lb, and a fair amount of build time. I asked how slippery it might be on approach, and he said with speed control and slipping it shouldn't be a problem getting it to come down reasonably, and in any case wouldn't be much different from what a pilot faces in the LSA. He also mentioned a slight improvement in altitude performance due to the lack of a gap between the wing and flaps. It doesn't really help the aft c.g. concern with six seats occupied, but I decided I'm more interested in the useful load and having "less stuff" than the benefits the flaps provide, so I intend to go without.
Bob's main suggestion for addressing a potentially aft c.g. was to go with a heavy metal prop. My thought is to go with a constant speed prop, given the wide speed potential of the airplane, but that choice aside, my idea is to extend the firewall forward to take up the space that an O-540 would fill, and have a baggage compartment between the pilot and firewall. I would expect "stuff" to accumulate with the number of seats filled, and even if it doesn't prevent an aft c.g., it provides another degree of freedom to address the problem. I'm thinking of a durable, canvas-sided, stayed thing rather than a hard, sheet metal container you might be thinking. Requirements for a revised stress analysis aside, anybody think that's particularly dumb?
I've pretty much made up my mind that I'm doing these two things, but I wanted to see what folks thought. I think that if I'm off the reservation, it's only so far as the 7-Eleven.
Brian
Bob's main suggestion for addressing a potentially aft c.g. was to go with a heavy metal prop. My thought is to go with a constant speed prop, given the wide speed potential of the airplane, but that choice aside, my idea is to extend the firewall forward to take up the space that an O-540 would fill, and have a baggage compartment between the pilot and firewall. I would expect "stuff" to accumulate with the number of seats filled, and even if it doesn't prevent an aft c.g., it provides another degree of freedom to address the problem. I'm thinking of a durable, canvas-sided, stayed thing rather than a hard, sheet metal container you might be thinking. Requirements for a revised stress analysis aside, anybody think that's particularly dumb?
I've pretty much made up my mind that I'm doing these two things, but I wanted to see what folks thought. I think that if I'm off the reservation, it's only so far as the 7-Eleven.
Brian
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