How do you determine what a "safe" overweight condition is?

[chemgeek]

And how much does lets say a 5% increase in GW increase the stall speed?
Less than the width of the ASI needle, I'd say?

The change in stall speed worries me less than what the extra 5% does to CG, and that depends on how you are loaded. But this is all theoretical only. Who in their right mind consistently schemes and flies illegally and intentionally overweight instead of choosing the right aircraft for the mission? If you insist on filling all the seats and tanks and luggage compartments in a light single, just because it might be possible under a limited set of conditions, you don't understand the basics of flight safety. And please don't fly near me.

 

[flytime]

The 172 accident I referred to above illustrates the swiss cheese analogy perfectly. Most accidents occur as a result of various contributing factors coming together, and this was no exception. Take off overweight, knowingly or otherwise, and already you have passed through a hole in the first slice. Not sure about the CG? Well that could be another slice that you didn't even consider. Add to that an inoperative stall warning horn, and there is another slice. And another for a mission where you are required to fly low to the ground. And the distraction of a plane full of passengers with their a focus outside of the airplane, and real quickly you are one moment of inattention away from something really bad happening.

 

[Jaybird180]

Maybe the small overweight didn't cause the crash. But, as I said before, the attitude that leads a guy to deliberately fly overweight is the same attitude that will lead him to flout other regulations, and eventually he gets bitten.

Flying like that can't be called pilot error, either. Errors are innocent, inadvertent things that can cause accidents. Flying over gross isn't an error. Buzzing friends isn't an error. VFR into IMC isn't an error. Those are all deliberate. And the ensuing crashes aren't "accidents;" they are predictable payoffs for deliberate violations.

Dan

No, punching through a cloud deck on a VFR flight plan is deliberate. Too many variables to state unequivocably that VFR-IMC is deliberate.

Running out of gas...now thats deliberate (through negligence - in all but 1 scenario).

 

[flyingcheesehead]

No, punching through a cloud deck on a VFR flight plan is deliberate. Too many variables to state unequivocably that VFR-IMC is deliberate.

Insufficient information. There is certainly also inadvertent VFR into IMC, especially at night.

 

[Jaybird180]

That's what I said