Comments on: Gross weight

By: army

army — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:01:36 +0000

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By: Facebook Sluts

Facebook Sluts — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 02:31:48 +0000

The Black Hawk helicopter can carry a gross weight of 22,000 Lbs and an external load of 9,000 Lbs.

By: 1553

1553 — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:26:09 +0000

Now that’s a “heavy” problem…

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 06:52:57 +0000

I knew the Pilot of the site seeing helicopter that you mentioned. He was a talented pilot. When you expose yourself to risks time and time again it is only a matter of time before you have an incident or an accident. A few monthes after this accident a S-76 was departing another heliport north of this accident scene and he two went into the water. He was also over weight on a hot day. When you let employers push you into taking risks it is only a matter of time before an accident. When that happens the responsibility always falls on the Pilot in command. The FAA will fault the pilot, not the opefrator.

By: Maria

Maria — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:53:47 +0000

Nate: Weight and CG DO go hand-in-hand — no argument there. But this blog post is about weight and not CG and that’s what I responded to.

You can be within max gross weight and still be out of CG just as you can likely be over max gross weight and still within CG. One is weight, the other is balance. Separate but related.

By: Brendan Fitzpatrick

Brendan Fitzpatrick — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:38:41 +0000

Wow – why is always the simple things that seem to get us? How early on our training do we learn about the dangers of flying over gross weight. Thanks for reminding us!

By: ROSEVELT SMIF

ROSEVELT SMIF — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:53:04 +0000

MITER TIMS
I CANS REALLY BELATES TO YU’S GROSSLY WEIGHTS MESSAGE. I WAS GEETEN READYS TO FLY MYS HELIWOPTER AND MY TO BIG SITERS SHOWS UP DA RIDE. WHEN DEY GOTS OUT OF THE CAR I KNOWED DEY WAS GROOSLY OBERS WEIGHT, SO I’S COULS ONLY TAKES ONE AT’S I TIMES WIFF ABOUT’S TIRTY GALLON OF FUELS. WHEN DA REALLY REALLY BIG ONE GOTS IN DA SKIDS SAID OUCH! NOW I GOTS DA HIGH SKIDS AND WHEN SHE GOTS IN I TAUGHT I HADS LOW SKIDS. I TOLD HERS SHE BROKE MY HELIWOPTER AND SHE HADS TO GETS OUT, I WASEN NOT GOIN TO FLY’S HER. SHE’S WAS REALY MAD AT ME BUTS I WAS NOT GOIN TO RISK MY LIFE. I TOLD ‘S HER TO LEAVES AND TAKE’S A AIRPANE RIDE ON A JUMBOS JET SO SHE’S COULD’S GET OFF DA GROUNDS. YOU’S REALLY MAKKES YOUR STORY GOOOD FOR ME’S TO UNDERSTANDS AND KEEPS ME SAFE

MEERRY CRITMAS AAND HAPEE NEW YEARS

By: Ehud Gavron

Ehud Gavron — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:45:16 +0000

I’m a 110hr pilot so I still do W&B for every flight. I use a spreadsheet given to me under NDA by my flight school. The first one here is almost great. The second doesn’t run in OpenOffice. Still, without these tools we still have a pen, a paper, and a calculator.

I was trained against the fat-pencil approach. I know there are three sets of rules:
1. What we tell the FAA DE during the checkride
2. What we tell the CFI when asked during training
3. What we do

My instructor made it a big deal to emphasize that #1 is all about “giving the book answer” but the second and the third need to be the same.

The exact quote was “If what we do is not what we were taught then we should review why we were taught that with the instructor and either change the teaching, or change the behavior.”

In the Robinson Safety Course they spend an entire day discussing the mechanical aspects of the aircraft. Those limitations are there for specific reasons. Being over gross weight means the stress on the transmission and MR may cause fatigue. You’ll never know if YOUR over-weight flight caused the fatigue that causes it to break on the next flight… unless you never do it.

I’m not a rule-follower when it comes to traffic, taxes, and saying “the appropriate thing”… but I am when it comes to flying a helicopter.

Cheers

Ehud

By: Nate

Nate — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:08:11 +0000

Dr. Rob,

I had a similar situation flying a fairground like mission but slightly differant concern. I was flying a Bell-206B which as many aircraft has more seates then a full tank will allow to fill. I had explicit instructions to my loading crew that I could only take 2 pax until I gave them the signal. I was close to giving them the thumbs up for 3 when they sent out a very “Healthy” man and another that was about 180. A quick rough swag showed that we were just under max gross my concern now was if the gentleman could get the belt secured. I didn’t want to embarasse him in front of the line of folks. This being the 10th flight of the day we had got into a habit pattern so we continued as usual. It wasn’t until I lifted that I realized they had loaded the other passenger on the same side of the aircraft and now I became quickly aware that I may have a CG issue. Again, not wanting to embarass and had a very long LZ, I continued teh T/O but made as gentle of turns as possible as I made one very large circle for a pattern and came back in to land. I would contradict Maria in saying that Weight and CG are not seperate issues since as weight changes so does CG. They go hand in hand and should always be considered together. To many people get wrapped around weight only as did I in this case.

By: Vengeance 07

Vengeance 07 — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 06:21:48 +0000

HIGE power equals take off power and passing through translational lift will further decrease power required. Most of the helicopters I have flown have been limited based on the strength of the landing gear. One can further get a good low runway take off and get to an airspeed which will maximize the power margin. The real challenge comes when you need to land. Power management is the key in flying a good approach to give up translational lift as you are settling into ground effect. Remember ground effect is not lineal. I get to see military pilots every day take down wind take offs and fly sloppy because they believe their aircraft will never run out of power. I have case studies full of Cobras, Super Sea Stallions, and Phrogs all running out of power. I fly a Huey. I live at max gross weight everyday and for me, I know the demends who live on the other side of that limitation line. 2300 hours tells me not to go there unless it’s life or death.