Why isn't useful load a typical entry in for sale ads?

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Frank

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Frank
When we read ads, typically the ads have total times, smoh, spoh, avionics, interior and exterior condition, and the ever fun lost medical, must sell. One piece of crucial information for me is the useful load. It would also be helpful to have the gross weight. Gross weight can vary significantly within a model, but empty weight is even more variable, especially as aircraft age. So- why don't more ads show useful load?
 
Frank said:
When we read ads, typically the ads have total times, smoh, spoh, avionics, interior and exterior condition, and the ever fun lost medical, must sell. One piece of crucial information for me is the useful load. It would also be helpful to have the gross weight. Gross weight can vary significantly within a model, but empty weight is even more variable, especially as aircraft age. So- why don't more ads show useful load?
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I think it is hit or miss. I am currently actively searching, and its true, many (probably majority) do not have weight information. I just end up getting a ballpark by looking at the general specs.
 
I like to research the type aircraft with general specs before chasing the advertisements. Have seen a few with gross weight and usefull load. Follow up with a seller can handle that question . Love the power of the internet.
 
Ron Levy said:
They don't want to scare off potential customers?
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Spot on. They don't want you to know there was never a new weight and balance done after ten items each weighing a pound were installed at different places. Nor do they want you to know there is still 20 pounds of useless/abandoned wire from the last avionics upgrade.
 
It would be my guess that useful load isn't usually listed for the same reason take-off distances, cruise speeds and stall speeds are also not listed.

If one is looking at, say, Cessna 182 Skylanes, the performance specs have most likely already been researched, and our buyer is just comparing 182 vs. another 182.

Anybody who has been around airplanes for a while knows that a C-150 is easilly overloaded, but a 182 can carry just about anything asked of it.
 
As someone who recently went though the process of buying an airplane and was looking at this very spec, I disagree. It can vary a LOT between aircraft of the same make/model.

Different equipment, different seats, different glass, A/C, and a lots of other things can bump the empty weight up quite a bit.
 
Non Compos Mentis said:
It would be my guess that useful load isn't usually listed for the same reason take-off distances, cruise speeds and stall speeds are also not listed.

If one is looking at, say, Cessna 182 Skylanes, the performance specs have most likely already been researched, and our buyer is just comparing 182 vs. another 182.

Anybody who has been around airplanes for a while knows that a C-150 is easilly overloaded, but a 182 can carry just about anything asked of it.
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That's just the thing, UL varies widely even between two planes of the same type/year. To stick with your 182 example mine will haul 1250lbs but our school plane just 3 years older lifts 1300. However when it first showed up it could only carry 1150lbs. I've even come across a 150 with a scant 300lb UL making it a "wonderful" candidate for someone to learn to fly in, but only if you and the CFI are small.
 
Because they don't know it.
 
Ron Levy said:
They don't want to scare off potential customers?
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Or the published useful load should be known to cometent pilots looking at that particular model? Or the owner dorsn't know. :eek:

That info has to be online somewhere. :dunno:
 
Skylane81E said:
That's just the thing, UL varies widely even between two planes of the same type/year. To stick with your 182 example mine will haul 1250lbs but our school plane just 3 years older lifts 1300. However when it first showed up it could only carry 1150lbs. I've even come across a 150 with a scant 300lb UL making it a "wonderful" candidate for someone to learn to fly in, but only if you and the CFI are small.
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Maybe its because I rarely fly my airplane at or near gross weight, but this seems to reinforce what I said. The 182 can carry quite a bit, while the 150 is easilly overloaded.

For my flying, 1150 pounds and 1300 pounds useful load are both "plenty".

With my airplane, I can fill the seats and the tanks and be within weight limits. Only when the baggage area gets heavy is it time for a precise calculation.

If I was shopping for a 182, I wouldn't worry about a particular airplane's useful load- Any 182 will carry my normal load.
 
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