Michael, while a good
idea, the only down side, I see is weight.
Early on in my
build of my RV-6A, I made an “improvement’ here or there – I mean they only
added an couple ounces or half a pound, etc. Well an ounce at a time, I
was horrified to find out at the end, that my plane end up 120 lbs over
Van’s recommended target weight. Now 44 lbs of that were batteries, but
even so weight is the “performance Killer!” .
I initially thought
my good friend, Tracy Crook, was ….well, somewhat fanatical about weight and
some of the “extremes” he went to avoid and ounce of weight – well, no
longer.
I have watch the
performance of my aircraft improve as I took off pound after pound. But,
trust me it’s a lot harder to take off (Hummm, applies to weight on all
objects apparently – thinking of my own body {:>) than it is to avoid
in the first place.
Sometimes, there are
certainly other considerations (safety for one) that override weight
consideration – but, in my book, that is about the only one (well, perhaps
cost {:>))
Ed