Friend of mine is looking for some 10kg ballast bags with metal pellets in them for his jet.
There are suppliers in the US, but he can’t seem to find any in Europe. And it seems silly just to have dead weight shipped over the ocean.. So here we are Europe, losing out on another high tech area 
Any ideas?
Many slaters have scrap lead that can be purchased quite cheap. If it’s only for a short time you might ask yor local gliding club. Gliders are trimmed with (lead) weights to adjust pilot mass. Some of them come in cushions.
Then many car tire dealers have scrap lead weights that you can put into a bag.
How many bags do you need anyway (and what for)?
Why use lead? If you use sacks of rice at least you will be able to eat the rice if your aircraft ruins your finances..
Why use lead? If you use sacks of rice at least you will be able to eat the rice if your aircraft ruins your finances
Seems unlikely that the rice would be needed for that purpose.
Thanks for the ‘lead’ Jason
mh: 3×10 kg would be needed. It’s a matter of M&B for certain flights. Yes, even with high-end toys you run into problems on that front!
Why use lead.
Somewhere in our garden lies a large paving stone (ca. 20kg) that I stole from an construction site at an airfield in Poland many years ago. With six big male passengers our Cessna 421 was so much out of trim that the autopilot would not engage. So for the return flight we desperately needed some ballast. That stone we used as ballast for many years to come. One day, to clear my conscience, I will take it back to Poland.
No, really, everything that can be tied down in the baggage compartment can be used as ballast. There is absolutely no need to import lead from the United States.
Wouldn’t Jerrycans with water do the trick? They would be lighter if not needed … And you had some water to wash the windshields from time to time
