Useful Weight Poll, Please share!

[schrambow]

Hello, I don't know if this against the rules of this forum but I will try.

For just purely curiosity reasons for me, and not to brag or boast, unless people here want to do that.  I would like to start a poll to see what each of us has for a useful load in our Commanders we fly.

I start off here:

Commander 840   -     useful load : 3458.42 lbs.
Commander 680FLP-  useful load : 2478.63 lbs.

Curious of what people have out there with all of the different makes and models?  I hope we get a lot of sharing here!  Thanks in advance .
Corey

[donv]

My 980 has a useful load of 3,257, assuming you count useful load starting at max takeoff weight of 10,325 and not max ramp weight.

[schrambow]

sorry, i should have specified this more clearly for the turbines, i used max ramp weight of 10375 for the 840 in my number above. So you get 50 more pounds to your number now. thanks for sharing

[donv]

Is yours calculated or based on an actual weighing?

Mine gained about 75 pounds from the calculated weight and balance (done after the Garmin install) to the actual weight.

[schrambow]

Yes, it is calculated.  I may want to leave it calculated from my gut feelings and your experience!  I wonder if others will post their weights and their experiences also? It is amazing how with time it seems aircraft seem to get heavier over the decades, nothing like us humans!

[donv]

They certainly do gain weight over the years. Mine lost about 100 pounds with the Garmin installation (G600, GTN 750/650), but my avionics were probably a bit on the heavy side before-- dual GNS-XLSs and the big Collins ADI/HSI setup.

[Jonathan Gray]

Our 840 has a usefull of 3043.  We are hoping to gain some when its finally finished with the avionics upgrade.

[Bruce Byerly]

I used to evaluate by the pound - the heavier the better 

The heavier planes always had more equipment, options and soundproofing.  Then the newer avionics installs taught us about the 200+ lbs of copper and remote mounted equipment we could eliminate.

To me, it’s a bit rare to see under 7000 lbs in the 690 series.  If it’s got all of the toys, Collins (or even Garmin without a cleaned up harness) 100+ lbs of soundprooofing,  100 lbs of thick windows, and/or weighed with 14 throw rugs and 1/2 pot of coffee, you can expect something closer to 7400 empty.

Corey’s plane is like a unicorn. Unmolested original without a heavy interior or belly full of FOD. Pretty cool.

[Bruce Byerly]

Our 840 has a usefull of 3043.  We are hoping to gain some when its finally finished with the avionics upgrade.

But man is that thing quiet 

[donv]

My airplane was very unmolested as well, and on the advice of Norm Ralston, I intentionally did not do additional soundproofing, thick windows, etc. His suggestion was to get an intercom and 6 noise cancelling headsets, which is what I did.

[Bruce Byerly]

My airplane was very unmolested as well, and on the advice of Norm Ralston, I intentionally did not do additional soundproofing, thick windows, etc. His suggestion was to get an intercom and 6 noise cancelling headsets, which is what I did.

A set of well balanced props and making sure the vibration dampers are attached goes a long way too. Wish we had those Bose headsets back in the day!

[donv]

Yes, and the wide chord props help a bit as well.

[schrambow]

I'll share our 681 hawk that we sold last year also, 2976 lbs useful.
I was curious on a lot of the other Commanders as well, but i suppose there are not a lot of other people on here who have 500's, 560's, 680's, etc.... I haven't seen any 1000 drivers here though also?  Anyways, thanks for those who shared here, and this thread will hopefully stay open in the future for anyone whom wants to add their model/bird to this.  Thanks all.
 

[Adam Frisch]

Pretty much dead on 3000lbs on the 680V after panel upgrade.

[Bruce Byerly]

1,850 in the 500B. Highest I’ve witnessed is 4,400 in a 695B. 

Or, whatever you can close the door on according to some