Just wondering if any of you have tried adding a little weight in the bagagge compartment to increase cruise speed. I use to have a Beech Musketeer and most members of that club felt adding 30 to 40 lb in the baggage hold added a few knots at cruise. I have a friend that has a 205 and he claims to gain speed by adding wieght aft.
He has two plastic water bags (5 gal each) that he straps in the bag comp. When he has luggage, he simply lets out the water and rolls up the bags for easy storage. He claims 3 t0 5 knots improvement.
Any thoughts on this will be appreciated.
Allen in Mexico

I add weight in the aft, not to increase cruise speed, but to keep the CG in the envelope. I have a O-360 with a hartzell constant speed prop. If I fly with full gas and two large people in front its out of CG. When it is, the plane likes to drop the nose when I get slow on final. It gets a little exciting

Craig

I never noticed any appreciable difference in speed. Only that when the aircraft gets tail heavy it gets more squirrely in crosswind landings.

All of our performance books in the KC-135 and KC-10 showed we got better range and performance when the CG was sitting on the aft edge.

Mine flies much nicer with weight in the tail. Little faster 1-2kts (I think) tail heavy. Lands a lot nicer also. Its also helpful for getting stopped quicker when on conventional gear.