Quote:
Originally Posted by jrh  I completely agree. I would never advocate that it's acceptable to exceed limitations clearly established by the manufacturer.
As has been said, anyone who does so becomes a test pilot.
HOWEVER, I want people to understand flying is not a black and white activity, it's full of shades of grey.
Can we fly 1 pound over gross? Yep, in fact I bet a lot of people have done so by mistake. How about 10? I won't lie, I'd do it in a pinch. 100? That's pushing it. 1000? That's nuts. There will come a point when the plane won't get off the ground, but we don't know exactly when. Personally, I don't want to be the guy who finds out.
I wish this could be a clear cut case of "Don't overload your planes, boys and girls," but it's not. There are numerous factors involved and nobody is talking about anything except the extra weight.
How about the fact that the plane stalled? Planes don't drop out of the sky for no reason. The pilot stalled the plane because he exceeded the critical angle of attack. Why he exceeded the critical AoA is anybody's guess, but I can guarantee the extra weight was only one factor of many.
Why was he maneuving too low to recover? Why did he ignore the stall horn? Did he get distracted? What other pressures was he under to complete the flight? When was the last time he flew that plane under similar conditions?
The list could go on and on. |
Considering the usual visitor here at JC is a young, new, wet behind the ear, private pilot student. . .I can't say I advocate discussing the ways and abilities of an aircraft to fly overgross.
Sure, he could have been flying higher. . .but so what. He still was flying overgross, and who knows where his CG was, perhaps beyond the aft limit - making any stall recovery even more difficult. We can speculate about this all day, all week, all month, all year.
What we shouldn't be doing, here at least, is dictating the different circumstances a 172 can/could be flown overgross. IMHO.