What is the most weight you have ever hauled in a 172?

cbmontgo

cbmontgo

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cbmontgo
One of the airplanes that I fly is a 1981 172P. I believe that the max useful load with full tanks is about 625-650 pounds.

What is the most weight you have ever hauled in a 172?
 
Last night I hauled 360 pounds (humans) plus 5-20 pounds (stuff) plus fuel. It was dark and the flashlight / wooden stick showed both tanks were close to full but when I went to the gas pump it would not work.

40 x 6 = 240 so if I had filled them I would have been close to max gross.
 
I hauled a 2 year old buffalo ...


cut and wrapped in freezer paper
 
Two adults, two kids, and fuel to tabs, no luggage. Came to about 800lbs, not much under the useful payload. It was a very hot day but I was taking off from sea level. Still was slower to climb than what I'm used to.
 
Does high density altitude affect the max gross weight number itself? I am curious as to what the scientific explanation is. I have heard different opinions on this subject.
 
Me and my CFI were doing my first dual cross-country. There was a group of Icelandic students at the airport who were wrestling through the FAA paperwork (they were already PPL'ed, wanted to rack up hours cheaper here). We asked the one female student if she wanted to ride along.

So...460 up front, plus whatever a 5' 10" skinny (but pale) Icelandic girl weighs, plus full fuel. Nothing in the baggage compartment because the stupid door latch popped open on every non-greaser landing.
 
cbmontgo said:
Does high density altitude affect the max gross weight number itself? I am curious as to what the scientific explanation is. I have heard different opinions on this subject.
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No, you're gonna need more ground roll and more ground speed (given everything else the same except DA) but max gross is max gross, no matter the DA.
 
My wife, my (then) 10 year old daughter, me, daughter's gear from sea camp and my wife's and my luggage plus snorkeling gear + full fuel. A trip from Marathon Key (KMTH) back to Orlando (KORL). I was ~100 lbs under gross in that airplane. And we left at 7:30 AM. It flew just fine.

John
 
A CFI and full fuel, don't know that I've ever piloted a 172 with the backseat occupied.
 
cbmontgo said:
One of the airplanes that I fly is a 1981 172P. I believe that the max useful load with full tanks is about 625-650 pounds.

snip...
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That is pretty good and more than my turbo 182 can do, which would be under 500 lbs with full (522 lb) fuel!
 
A very long time ago, when I was young and foolish, I hauled three college boys and three sets of golf clubs. They were on their way home from spring break, ran into weather, and hired me to fly them the rest of the way IFR. The clubs were hidden in the tail, and I didn't find out about them until I took off, and the climb was weak (darn near didn't clear the TV towers northwest of Bowman Field across the river from Louisville) and the pitch control was squirrely. Damn lucky to survive the experience. Never again! MGW, in cg, or I'm not doing it.
 
cbmontgo said:
Does high density altitude affect the max gross weight number itself? I am curious as to what the scientific explanation is. I have heard different opinions on this subject.
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No. Max gross is a structural limitation.

The aircraft metal doesn't change weight or thickness (strength) by being operated in lower density air molecules.

DA is a performance number, not structural.
 
The above said...

Leadville. 75F.

KLXV 9934' MSL
DA 13116' MSL

What's the climb rate of a Skyhawk at 13,116? (Service Ceiling is 13,500')

You gonna clear those trees? ;). Does it really matter how much stuff you have on board, are you going flying?

Now it's 23F out and you're freezing your body parts off on the ramp. DA = Field Elevation.

Can you now go flying? ;)

Will it help if you keep the aircraft light?

What's the book say for takeoff distance over a 50' obstacle at roughly 10,000' MSL?

Real world stuff here. People do fly Skyhawks into KLXV. (Under the right conditions.)
 
denverpilot said:
No. Max gross is a structural limitation.

The aircraft metal doesn't change weight or thickness (strength) by being operated in lower density air molecules.

DA is a performance number, not structural.
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This is what I had assumed, but have been curious as to whether performance numbers affect the envelope of max gross. Interesting stuff.
 
Mine while older hauls 96 total 88 useable

But also has a full fuel payload of 722lbs
 
denverpilot said:
No. Max gross is a structural limitation.

The aircraft metal doesn't change weight or thickness (strength) by being operated in lower density air molecules.

DA is a performance number, not structural.
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I thought max gross is a combination of the two - are there are STC's out there that allow for a max gross increase with a more powerful engine?


Also it seems to me that an airplane 500 pounds over gross, flying in heavy turbulence at max turbulence penetration speed will not stress the airframe anymore than an airplane loaded at gross. This is because the wings will actually stall a bit sooner on the airplane loaded over gross
 
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dell30rb said:
Max Gross is a combination of the two - i do believe there are STC's out there that allow for a max gross increase with a more powerful engine?
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This one also has a Powerflow exhaust, which I think adds about 20HP on that engine. Probably paperwork somewhere that even adds a bit of gross weight with that modification.
 
I used to fly a T41C ( a 172XP ) that had 1137 pounds of useful load or 837 with full fuel. I don't know that I ever got to gross but I have flown in it with 3 people and thier camping gear going to osh. It had a climb prop so it could take off in a short roll and climb pretty much no matter what the density altitude was. I did fly out of the lowlands but would often have 2-3000 foot density altitude add ons.
 
denverpilot said:
Bladder of steel, you glider guys. ;)
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most of the long trips (5.5 hrs) i did in the 182RG were solo. gatorade bottles work great.

we don't hold it in gliders. or at least i don't. i've usually got bags along with me so i can pee if i need to. its really important to stay hydrated.
 
dell30rb said:
...are there are STC's out there that allow for a max gross increase with a more powerful engine?
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Some do, some don't -- depends on the basic structure. The C-172P gets a 150 lb MGW increase when you replace its 160HP O-320 with a 180 HP O-360. OTOH, the STC for the Grumman Cheetah to replace its 150HP O-320 with a 180 HP O-360 doesn't get the 200 lb MGW increase unless you also replace the center spar assembly with the beefier Tiger center spar.
 
cbmontgo said:
This one also has a Powerflow exhaust, which I think adds about 20HP on that engine. Probably paperwork somewhere that even adds a bit of gross weight with that modification.
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To my knowledge, there are no changes to rated power with a Powerflow exhaust, and no MGW increases on that basis.
 
My 172 has flown 25% OVER gross before. Oh, and it's service ceiling is 14,200ft.
 
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The 0-360 upgrade where available on a pre-restart 172 AND limiting the flap travel to 30* raises the max gross to 2550.
 
I took four adults and bags from ND to NM for the balloon fiesta. We were all young and well before our middle-aged spread days, but as I recall we were pretty well maxed out.
 
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