Overloading Max Gross

No, you couldn't. You can't be a 135 PIC with 250 hours TT.

Nobody said it did.

I gather that.

135 would take 500 (vfr), or you could be 121 or flying for the department of the interior with less. It is also limited to aircraft under 12,500' so no ATP required.

Instead of all the back and forth why not just say that aircraft manufacturers generally build lots of safety into their weight numbers for small aircraft as evidenced by that broad FAR exception.
 
How much weight does rain water add to a plane? I'm not trying to justify anything here, it just popped into my head when reading this. Has to be something semi-substantial right? Do you guys figure that weight in when flying in the rain? btw, i'm just a student, and this post got me thinking.

Well, I've flown, landed and had to put the plane away in some VERY rainy conditions the last few months. Due to it being winter in WI and an almost certainty that it'd be below freezing in the next couple of days, I didn't want anything to drain into the control surface hinges or cables and have a chance to freeze anything up. So, I've busted out a roll of shop towels (the heavy-duty blue paper towels) a couple of times and dried off the whole plane immediately after putting it in the hangar. I doubt I got 5 pounds of water off the plane either time, and I doubt it could have held much more water than it had on it, and I really doubt it was carrying nearly as much in flight.
 
When all of her suitcases are loaded.

I think the real problem is where do you stop? 3% over? 5% over? 6% over....just because you can (or think you can) does NOT mean you should.

We operated one aircraft on the "lockheed" tables"-35% over civil gross. But the stuff the chiefs had to do every time we landed would make your head spin. All the checklists were different.

So where does it stop?
 
When all of her suitcases are loaded.
Nah. :)

When the bathroom scale located at the cargo door, totals 900. That is max legal gross, and IIRC, at Mt. Home- the highest GW departure for the folks I was taking, with an "out" was 750. And that late morning, the scale got to 710. 4570 minus 200 with 5000 feet on a hot summer day. And that's all, folks.

wabower said:
The 200 is operated by the military at 10% greater weight than the civilian model that comes off the same production line.
I don't know about the USAF, but when we flew the -3 on the lockheed tables, the stuff the chiefs had to do after EVERY return..."you mean we can't just load up and go again?"......."no, son. You can't".
 
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The 200 is operated by the military at 10% greater weight than the civilian model that comes off the same production line.

Yep, and there are STCs issued all of the time for increased max gross for various airplanes all of the time. In fact any FAA approved increased HP engine upgrade usually accompanies an STC for a weight bump.
 
Overweight landing inspections are nothing more than a visual (i.e. preflight) which is consistent with other GA planes.

Nah. :)

When the bathroom scale located at the cargo door, totals 900. That is max legal gross, and IIRC, at Mt. Home- the highest GW departure for the folks I was taking, with an "out" was 750. And that late morning, the scale got to 710. 4570 minus 200 with 5000 feet on a hot summer day. And that's all, folks.

I don't know about the USAF, but when we flew the -3 on the lockheed tables, the stuff the chiefs had to do after EVERY return..."you mean we can't just load up and go again?"......."no, son. You can't".
 
I'm not even going to read all of the comments. The fact is you asked on a public internet forum if it's gonna be okay to fly your airplane over gross and here we are at page four.

I mean come on, what are you looking for? Do you think you're going to get an "answer"?

The only thing I will say is that if you're going to start doing this, if you're going to start flying beyond the published limits of your aircraft it's unlikely that the wings are going to snap off but you could induce stresses at one point or another that won't be readily evident and possibly another owner, with his family on board 30 years from now......

But that's pure hypothetical speculation :dunno:
 
The airplane doesn't know it is 20 or 30 pounds overweight. My 172 hadn't been on a scale in 15 years, the new owner put it on a scale and it lost 30 pounds of useful load, which means when I was flying at gross I was 30 pounds overweight.

oh-the-huge-manatee.jpg


Yet here I am sitting here typing to my friends on the internet. Is it a good idea? No. Will flying 30 pounds over gross during winter in the flatlands kill you? Probably not.
 
The airplane doesn't know it is 20 or 30 pounds overweight. My 172 hadn't been on a scale in 15 years, the new owner put it on a scale and it lost 30 pounds of useful load, which means when I was flying at gross I was 30 pounds overweight.

oh-the-huge-manatee.jpg


Yet here I am sitting here typing to my friends on the internet. Is it a good idea? No. Will flying 30 pounds over gross during winter in the flatlands kill you? Probably not.

What this guy said.

I've done w&b for my plane. I've loaded it gross and run the numbers to check and double check. It was right there. Now if it got heavier than the book, I was over. 30 pounds on an airplane with 3100 pounds .. 1% 25 pounds on a pa28 is what, 1.5%?
 
What this guy said.

I've done w&b for my plane. I've loaded it gross and run the numbers to check and double check. It was right there. Now if it got heavier than the book, I was over. 30 pounds on an airplane with 3100 pounds .. 1% 25 pounds on a pa28 is what, 1.5%?

Yeah but that 1.5% coupled with the blazing speed of a Piper Archer and very small safety margins on certified planes is enough to fold the wings up.
 
Generally not a good idea, for reasons others have given.

My Cardinal, I wouldn't even try to fly 100 lbs under gross in the summer heat. 35C and full fuel with me solo, it flies like a pig.
 
If you find that a completed flight was conducted while over max gross due to an error in one of the published limitations do you immediately report to the FSDO and turn yourself in?

Of course! :rofl:

The FAA has a term for that, it's called "self disclosure".
 
135 would take 500 (vfr), or you could be 121 or flying for the department of the interior with less. It is also limited to aircraft under 12,500' so no ATP required.

Instead of all the back and forth why not just say that aircraft manufacturers generally build lots of safety into their weight numbers for small aircraft as evidenced by that broad FAR exception.
Because that is not true, and anyone who acts on that false hypothesis is just fooling him/herself.
 
Yep, and there are STCs issued all of the time for increased max gross for various airplanes all of the time.
"All the time"? Hardly. And they rarely if ever come without a physical change to the aircraft or at least to its operating limitations.
In fact any FAA approved increased HP engine upgrade usually accompanies an STC for a weight bump.
Not true either. For example, to get the full GW increase in the C-172, you also have to change the flap travel limit. In the Grumman AA-5/5A, with the O-360 STC, you also have to swap the center spar for a Tiger spar to get the GW increase -- otherwise, the MGW stays at the original 2200.
 
Oh geez. Fuel density also changes with temps so hey, why don't we monitor that too so we can all pat ourselves on the back?

Know your plane and how it functions. Then you won't need to worry so much. My answer to all this is "if its a new plane to me, I am more conservative until I learn its behavior and characteristics". My flying clubs 172 I won't load even to max gross cause it becomes sluggish heavy. My own pponk 182 will happily carry 200lb over max gross without blinking. I learned these things over time.
 
I like to go back to my DPE, who was grossly overweight. He kept insisting that for the w&b the student used 250lb for him. He is over 300lb. It's a well known inside joke at the FBO where I learned to fly. In the 152, it ends up being the difference between at gross and at least 50lb over gross sometimes. Oh well. Smile and move on, no one fusses over it.
 
The airplane doesn't know it is 20 or 30 pounds overweight. My 172 hadn't been on a scale in 15 years, the new owner put it on a scale and it lost 30 pounds of useful load, which means when I was flying at gross I was 30 pounds overweight.

oh-the-huge-manatee.jpg


Yet here I am sitting here typing to my friends on the internet. Is it a good idea? No. Will flying 30 pounds over gross during winter in the flatlands kill you? Probably not.


What boggles my mind is when we get a Cessna 750 in, paint it and do a complete interior refurb and the jackpoint weigh comes within 10 pounds of the most current W&B in the book. Doesn't happen often but it does. :yikes:
 
"All the time"? Hardly. And they rarely if ever come without a physical change to the aircraft or at least to its operating limitations.

Not saying there isn't a physical change to an airplane, but find a make and model of airplane where you can't increase MGW. Sometimes it is very simple, sometimes its more complicated.
 
Because that is not true, and anyone who acts on that false hypothesis is just fooling him/herself.

Well, we know the certification standards for part 23 aircraft. And the design load limit is actually the limit +50%. So there is some strength built into these airplanes.

And we have seen manufactures "overbuild" aircraft. Beechcraft are a perfect example of some strong aircraft that have been used outside of their design characteristics.
 
There is a paper only stc to increase the MGW of a piper apache w/ 150hp engines from 3500# to 4000#. I assume it stipulates you have converted your twin to a single with two engines though. =P
 
I wonder if this was the female controller that seems to have a snarky attitude a lot:rolleyes:.

I think she gets too excited and panicky every time she hears a word Jet! LOL
 
Then I do whatever makes the most sense and hope I don't screw it up, which is exactly what I would do in any situation when something goes wrong. If I worried too much about the "ifs buts and coulds" of flying... I wouldn't be flying. 50 lbs estimated over max gross for a PA28-180 in nice conditions does not add enough of a concern for me. YMMV.

With single engine ops the 'ifs' don't really count too much, but in the multi world they count for more. Every pound I can leave behind is performance I retain when I'm down on a single engine, this does carry over to partial power failures on a single though.
 
If the $10K + that my insurance saved me at my first annual is an illusion, then I'll take it over reality any day. :rofl:

Besides, carrying hull insurance is a condition of my hangar lease.

"May you find your way as pleasant."

Please explain what happened to your engine that was covered by a generous insurance company.
 
Please explain what happened to your engine that was covered by a generous insurance company.
I never said anything happened to my engine. I (more accurately the previous owner, but I inherited the problem) had a mouse nest above my headliner. The spar carrythrough was corroded beyond airworthiness limits and needed replacement.

There's a thread about that somewhere on this forum...
 
Well, we know the certification standards for part 23 aircraft. And the design load limit is actually the limit +50%. So there is some strength built into these airplanes.
While I agree that flying with an extra 25 or 50 lbs isn't going to break a Bonanza, the idea that there's a 50% safety margin in the design load limits of our airplanes isn't exactly correct. There are two load limits, the "yield" limit and the "ultimate" limit. Certification rules require that the ultimate limit be 150% of the design limit (e.g. 3.8 * MGW) but the yield limit requires no margins at all. Stress beyond the actual yield limit will cause permanent deformation and generally make an airplane unairworthy. It does require stress beyond the ultimate limit to catastrophically fail a major structural component though so it is technically/theoretically true that the wings won't fall off when the loads are less than 150% of the design limit.

And we have seen manufactures "overbuild" aircraft. Beechcraft are a perfect example of some strong aircraft that have been used outside of their design characteristics.
The Bonanza was certified in the utility category (max +4.4G). All the STCs I've seen that include a GW increase (+150 to 200 lbs with tip tanks or +400 lb with tips and turbocharging) change the category to standard (+3.8G).
 
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Not saying there isn't a physical change to an airplane, but find a make and model of airplane where you can't increase MGW. Sometimes it is very simple, sometimes its more complicated.
Never said otherwise, but it's very rare without physical or opeerating limit changes, and not something done on a whim without a lot of engineering analysis.
 
Well, we know the certification standards for part 23 aircraft. And the design load limit is actually the limit +50%. So there is some strength built into these airplanes.
One time only. Each time you overstress the structure beyond its intended operational limit, a little bit more of the safety margin is lost.
And we have seen manufactures "overbuild" aircraft. Beechcraft are a perfect example of some strong aircraft that have been used outside of their design characteristics.
Pure speculation unsupported by engineering analysis.
 
I already did. You just seem to disbelieve the basic laws of physics, mechanical engineering, and materials science.

Quite the contrary, perhaps I am being unclear. Why don't the laws of physics, mechanical engineering, and materials science apply equally to pilots flying for the department of the interior in Alaska as they do for pilots flying for the department of the interior in say Arizona? It really shouldn't be a hard question to answer if there is any technical basis for the difference in the FAR's.
 
It's called metal fatigue. A beam of aluminum or of most malleable metals, when overstressed beyond about X0% begins a long decline in strength. The higher the overstress, the more rapid the decline. this is the basis of the wingtip Tank AD where spar failures are beginning to be found just outboard of the gear.

But some of the "inverted" types are overwhelmed by "well, we overstressed it, it didn't fail, we must be okay. See? no problem." That is just called lack of education into mettalurgy and the young's modulus over time.
 
Remember, you don't want to look stupid in the NTSB report. :rolleyes2:
 
Quite the contrary, perhaps I am being unclear. Why don't the laws of physics, mechanical engineering, and materials science apply equally to pilots flying for the department of the interior in Alaska as they do for pilots flying for the department of the interior in say Arizona?
They do. The issue is how the planes are flown. The FAA trusts those professionals to stay within the reduced limits for such operations. They do not trust others the same.
 
Let's do this right and be sure we get all of the flyshlt in one pile and all the pepper in another. After all, these old airplanes are falling out of the sky from structural failure in record numbers, and that should be all the warning we need about these over-stress problems. How many 150's have gone down during the past five years? How many of them were ever flown under max gross?

that
One time only. Each time you overstress the structure beyond its intended operational limit, a little bit more of the safety margin is lost.
Pure speculation unsupported by engineering analysis.
 
They do. The issue is how the planes are flown. The FAA trusts those professionals to stay within the reduced limits for such operations. They do not trust others the same.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

We're all free to embrace whatever thought we want. Some are just a bit more weird than others...
 
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Generally not a good idea, for reasons others have given.

My Cardinal, I wouldn't even try to fly 100 lbs under gross in the summer heat. 35C and full fuel with me solo, it flies like a pig.
No Kidding. One of the slowest, most painful climbs of my life was in a 177RG 200 or so under gross a couple summers ago, but we had anticipated the bad performance and planned a departure over decending terrain, so there were no suprises.
 
No Kidding. One of the slowest, most painful climbs of my life was in a 177RG 200 or so under gross a couple summers ago, but we had anticipated the bad performance and planned a departure over decending terrain, so there were no suprises.
Coincidentally one of the slowest, most painful takeoffs I ever experienced was in a 180 HP FG Cardinal, leaving Grand Canyon airport around noon on a hot summer day.
 
Reasons for published max gross weight:

1) Structural issues
2) Desired performance numbers
3) Certification/marketing concerns

If you're going to exceed gross weight, it would help to know what the reason is. It seems that most wings fall off of airplanes when people are performing maneuvers that they aren't supposed to, though...
 
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