Overweight TO's in GA

[AWACoff]

The only time I've known that we took off overweight was when a ramper mistakenly labeled 600lbs of mail as 60lbs. That makes a big difference in a fully loaded Brasilia. As those who have flown the Brakillya know, at 26,433, the aircraft rotates by itself on takeoff. This takeoff had both of us grabbing the yoke at rotation. At the destination we found out why the "trim" was so wacked on takeoff.

 

[TurboS7]

I put way too much time in this one to let it go to the back burner. So everyone out there flies perfect airplanes and they NEVER, NEVER go over gross. If I were the FAA I could nail any of you commuter types right now, I know how you operate.

 

[bigD]

I'd imagine that about half of the 150's and 152's buzzing around with a student and instructor are over gross by a small margin.

 

[TurboS7]

Keep it coming this is a tough issue and guys trying to make a living out there will have to make some tough decisions. If they make the wrong one it could cost them their jobs, yet the wrong one could cost them any chance at their real dream. What do yo do???

 

[bigD]

I'm still a green pilot, so I haven't really had too many opportunities to push the envelope. Back in my 152 days, I had a petite (she was 5'1") instructor, and at 16 or 17 I was only maybe 150 myself, so I don't think we ever overloaded the plane back then.

Over the course of my pleasure flying, I've loaded a Warrior, an Archer, and a Cherokee 6 (5 college girls to South Padre island for Spring Break - one of the highlights of my flying career thus far!) to as close to 10 pounds under gross. As one other poster said, the published empty weights for the planes and the actual weights can vary quite a bit. So I may have been over gross in those situations. Dunno. Also, in the case of the Six filled with the girls - I'm sure a couple were a little "optimistic" with their weights. You know how women are about that stuff! I did add a "women fudge factor" of 15% for that flight, so I might have been okay.

I didn't really notice much change in the handling in any of the planes other than a slightly less enthusiastic climb. It's a tough situation. I might have been okay on paper, but if the FAA got out the scales, it might have been another thing altogether. But as a renter, I'm kind of taking the FBO's word that the empty weight listed is what's really there. I know it's my ass as PIC if it turns out to be wrong, but there's really only so much you can reasonably do.

 

[ShawnC]

I'd imagine that about half of the 150's and 152's buzzing around with a student and instructor are over gross by a small margin.

They are, we did the math, and we found that our 152 at Takeoff was 20 lbs overweight at takeoff, but it was within CG limits, so we never really cared too much because we generally burned that much fuel just climbing to alititude so it never really affected us too much. Plus he quouted the old
"A plane will surelly fly a limit over weight but it won't fly without fuel."

 

[AWACoff]

Turbo7...on the commuter note. I see it but it's not in the interest of furthering the company. Sometimes you feel the need to stick some fuel in your back pocket. 200lbs of extra fuel doesn't count when it's in your back pocket. As long as both crewmembers are okay with it (from my experience), it's "go time"!

 

[Bluto]

Um, Shawn, you did the math on all the 152's and 150's out there? I instructed at a school for two years where I never knowingly operated a 152 over gross. If a passenger was large enough, I stuck them on the scale. If we were over gross, we didn't go.

My scariest experience with this phenomenon was in a high-performance, turbo charged single. On my first flight in the aircraft with the factory demo pilot and a student, I noticed that on climb-out, at Vy, the stall horn was going off intermittently. That's odd, I thought. But continued "normally". The airplane flew fine. The next time the student came back to fly, along with 2 pax, I did a weight and balance calculation. Well, it turns out that my student and I alone were over gross weight. On our first flight we were over gross by at least the weight of the factory demo guy. As a matter of fact, with zero fuel and his pax, we were over max landing weight! In retrospect, it was scary. Don't ever trust anyone to do the weight and balance on an aircraft you are unfamiliar with. That's what I learned from the experience.

 

[ShawnC]

Well we did it just for the 152 that we were using to teach the basics of flight (moved onto an older 172 for my x-c training, then to an 172R w/ autopilot for my solo and finally for the checkride), we figured that at sea level in the winter we weren't pushing it too much being 20lbs overweight. Not only that we could just carry less fuel since it was all local.

 

[TurboS7]

In an attempt to tie this thread and the other thread on max ramp weight together. If you are going to fly an aircraft that you know has flown over gross, since the airworthiness limitations has been exceeded would it be airworthy without a special inspection???