Anyone on board here with a Pacer who can tell me what your empty W&B is?
A buddy of mine is coming up on the end of a multi-year PA-22/20-150 build, and I helped him weigh the airplane yesterday for the new W&B. With engine oil, zero fuel, and 850's, it came out at 1154# and 11.6" CG.

In spite of the fact that Piper clearly specifies the wing leading edge as the datum, there's sure a bunch of stuff in Piper W&B sheets (and in online discussions) about using a point 60" fwd of the WLE.
We also found a W&B sheet from years ago where they weighed the airplane after doing the tailwheel conversion, but when they did the math they used Piper's 166" tailpost arm even though they apparently weighed the aft end at the tailwheel which with a Scott 3200 is at 180.75".

My PA-22 (with the nose gear) has similar numbers.

As for the datum...my understanding, which may not be correct...

...is that the datum is that point 60" forward of the WLE. But they used the WLE as the zero-point for all calculations. So it looks like the datum, because it is zero, but the official engineering datum is the 60" forward point. Which I believe might correspond to the nose cone of the AM prop that came on the 125 and 135 horse engines...

The TCDS 1A6 Puts the datum at the leading edge of the wing (airplane leveled). Now go to FAA H-8083-1B Weight and balance handbook and it will show you how to do a proper weight and balance. Once that is done you will have the correct numbers to do a proper weight and balance. Once you have your base weight and balance the datum is often adjusted 60 inch forward so all calculations are easier to do. If you leave datum at wing leading edge you have to decide if you are adding or subtracting depending on location. When you do a weight and balance the tailwheel/tailpost distance should always be measured!!! Different size wheels, springs fuselage length all come into play so just measure from datum and plug it in. It is all very basic math, but if you do not start with the right numbers it will be screwed up.
DENNY

Mine's 1157.5 and 9.9 inches.

Matters not what your datum is. Just be consistent.

DENNY wrote:...... Now go to FAA H-8083-1B Weight and balance handbook and it will show you how to do a proper weight and balance. .......

Thanks for the pub #. This is available online:

https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policie ... 8083-1.pdf