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My 325 lb Pastor

pierre smith

Well Known Member
In the interest of safety and curiosity, I’ve decided to post this.

My Pastor, a devoted Methodist, is an incredibly enthusiastic aviation aficionado. Anything that flies has his attention and so it was when I mentioned our EAA meeting at our club house on its 2600’ grass strip.

Worried about his weight, I called a friendly DAR about the seat strength and he said that ought to be OK but that the step might break off. I cautioned him and the step held up as long as his weight was near the weld.

We were at or ahead of, the RV-10’s forward CG limit, so I added 75 lbs of lead to the baggage compartment which proved to be adequate during the flare. Well, we went into and out of our 2600’ strip with room to spare and I made a preacher one happy man!

Regards,
 
Lol...

It wasn't 'Joe average'...

Then again, I've been into and out of that strip many times so I kinda knew what the -10 could do....always an amazing airplane!,

Best,
 
similar issues

I thought I would chime in. I had a similar issue but it was a 350 lbs passenger in a Gulfstream 200.

I thought that 250lbs was the max passenger weight limit in the aircraft, as it turned out there was no weight limit! That was hard for me to accept because Ive seen passengers with less weight cause damage to metal with "normal" wear and tear.

I found out that the floor in the cabin had a floor limit which basically equated to a max passenger weight of 300lbs based on a heel loading.

I know a G200 isn't a Vans aircraft but a lot of construction design and materials are similar, and the truth is its built to be as light but as strong as possible. Ive built multiple Vans aircraft and others and have worked on most everything else. I personally get nervous putting anyone over 200lbs and max 240lbs on my RV9. walking into an aircraft and sitting into a normal chair is one thing but when your climbing on a wing and over a fuselage into a narrow cockpit, more than likely your concentrating the whole wait of the person on single points onto the aircraft.

why risk damaging your aircraft?

BTW the 240lbs passenger was my DAD.
 
And don’t crash. I’ll bet those belt anchors would lose that battle.
BTW, how in the heck did you have enough belt to strap him in?
 
Big People

I worked for a now long-gone FBO that did pilot training in American Aviation AA-1Bs. (Tr-2s, early 2 seat Grummans.) We had this one instructor, nice guy, who weighed about 300 lb. We straightened seat tracks on the right side at every 100 hour inspection. In another, other different life, I worked for a regional airline that flew Handley Page Jetstreams, which seated 1 on one side of the aisle, 2 on the other and I recall one time we rigged a double seat for a huge guy, removing the center seatbelts and then rigging an extra long belt to the two outside attach points. Not sure how legal that was, and we worried about breaking the seat, which was our design and fragile to begin with. It all went fine. And no, I don’t know if the poor guy had to pay for both seats.
I think the biggest pax in our RV-6 was probably 6’ 2” tall and about 250 lb. No acro, of course! Very tight, but workable, and he had a great time. Then he bought a Glastar.
 
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