"Andrew Sarangan" wrote in message
oups.com...
At the same time, if an airplane can fly safely at MGW with an
underpowered engine and a dirty airframe, what prevents an airplane
maintained to a higher standard from flying slightly above MGW? I am
not suggesting that people try this, but except from a regulatory point
of view, what is the real difference between these two scenarios?

I guess that depends on whom you ask. I already stated that I didn't feel
the 2% overage example given in the original post was likely to cause
problems for most pilots. I think it ought to be obvious to the most casual
observer that in reality, flying a pound or so over max gross is, for all
intents and purposes, the same thing as flying right at max gross.

Performance suffers in a continuously gradual way as weight increases.
There's nothing magical about the certificated max gross weight that changes
a safe plane into an unsafe plane at the moment you cross that line. But
there IS a limit to how safe the plane is as you increase its weight. There
IS a weight above which you should not be flying the plane, even from a
safety standpoint. The manufacturer and the FAA have drawn a very clear
line for the pilot to mark that maximum weight, and it is the pilot's
responsibility to respect that line.

A pilot's personal judgment may place that line somewhere else. But they do
not have the legal ability to put that line at a higher weight than the
manufacturer and FAA have put it. While piloting is in many respects all
about making individual judgment calls in order to establish the safety of
the flight, that is not ALL that it is about. Not today, and it hasn't been
for a long time. Pilots have a responsibility to ensure that the flight
remain safe AND legal.

The maximum certificated weight of the airplane is a somewhat arbitrary
line. Yes, it could have been set a little lower or a little higher, with
very little practical effect on airplane performance. But for better or for
worse, it is set where it is set. A responsible pilot will respect that.

Pete