Wing loading question

[erik1938]

This may sound stupid, but when calculating the wing loading do I include the weight of all the components as well as the wings and fuselage, or just the weight of the plane itself w/out components?

I have searched this forum and others but I couldn't find anything that would answer my question.

Thanks for any relpies.

[surfimp]

Well, that depends...do you plan to fly with plane with all of the components? ;)

Assuming the answer to the above is yes, then if you want to know a meaningful wingloading figure (i.e. the wingloading at which the plane will be flying), then yes, you'll want to take the ready-to-fly, actual all up weight (AUW) of the plane to get the wingloading. :D :D :D

Steve

[Sparky Paul]

And DO include the aileron's area as part of the wing area. :)

[erik1938]

Thanks guys. I thought that made sense but you never know. As I am building my plane I am attempting to estimate the finished weight using the density of balsa of approx 0.005789 lb/in^3.

So far my weight calculation for the wing is 1.18 oz and this is a 28 x 7.5 in wing with no taper. How does this sound, any thoughts?

I am interested to see just how close I come to the actuall weighed weigh of my finished plane.