Gross Weight

"Fred Choate" wrote in message
...
Here is a topic that was of discussion at work today:

How much is too much over gross weight? For example.....the 172 has a
gross weight of 2300 lbs, but what if you are 2345 at time of
takeoff.....is that too much over, even if you are going to be burning
enough fuel before your first scheduled stop to be under weight for
landing?

The "...you are a test pilot" phrase applies to many situations, including
going over gross weight.

Assuming a non-emergency situation, you fly the airplane by the book. That
means, even one pound over max gross is too much.

Let's say after landing at a remote airport, you stumbled upon an
organized-crime pot growing operation, along with a kidnap victim they kept.
Just as you are untying the victim, you are discovered. You and the victim
run to the plane, but just as you are getting ready to take off, having
narrowly escaped your pursuers, you realize that with your additional
passenger, you may be as much as 50 or 100 pounds overweight.

Do you at that point shut down the airplane, get out and let yourselves be
tied up again by the mobsters? I sure hope not!

There may be moments when being a test pilot is appropriate. In those
moments, you should be aware of the effects of the extra weight. To some
extent, if you've ever flown the airplane at max gross as well as at lower
weights, you already have an idea of the change in performance.

The 2% overage you describe will produce a noticeable reduction in
performance, but probably nothing that even an average pilot can't
accomodate (assuming you're not cutting things too close already). A 10%
overage is likely to create significant problems; one can prepare for them
(and many pilots have, for the purpose of ferrying airplanes long distances
for example), but should attempt only after calculating exactly what the new
performance figures will be, and with adequate planning for the flight
itself (assuming the drug runners aren't chasing you, that is...in that
case, I suppose you can just play it off the cuff ).

None of that implies that over-gross operations, even by a small margin, are
to be taken lightly. When ferry pilots operate over-gross, they do so with
a special exception granted by the FAA. This isn't a normal operation, and
the fact that some pilots do it doesn't mean it can be done safely by any
other random pilot (and certainly doesn't mean it can be done legally).

Even ignoring the safety issues, I agree it was entirely irresponsible for
your instructor to teach you to fly over gross. And make no mistake, he was
*teaching* you to do that. It only makes it worse that he taught it very
poorly, not even bothering to address the actual performance issues related
to flying over-gross (other than to let you suffer through them).

I don't know what kind of discussion you were expecting, but IMHO for
standard operations, there is simply no amount of excess weight above max
gross that is reasonable.

Pete