Exactly my problem apart from the fact that most with this weight will loose their medical,
Maybe in Switzerland, certainly not in the US and not in a lot of other countries either.
I doubt that a Decathlon has ever taken off with two guys on board and not been over gross. I forget the figures, but if you take two average 2000s guys at 90kg (being a little optimistic) you can’t carry enough fuel to leave the pattern. The Citabria is a little better because it has a higher MTOW due to the different wing, but it’s still pretty close.
As we always say: aircraft type and then ownership (or not) is mission-dependant.
If you want to go places with friends or family most two-seaters (ULM or not) are not an option.
If it is about local bimbles or travelling on your own or perhaps with one not-too-bulky-nor-heavy and light luggaged companion (or perhaps the light+small one is yourself in which case you are more flexible companion-wise) then your options open up and all of the discussion above starts to make sense.
Should we take the ensuing 24h silence (on a previously active thread) as evidence that the average weight of EuroGAers is 90+kg?
Antonio wrote:
Should we take the ensuing 24h silence (on a previously active thread) as evidence that the average weight of EuroGAers is 90+kg?
I’m still at 75 kg 
not going anywhere for year and years.
I’m 91kg, but, in my defense, I am tall (1.90m). If I fit comfortably in it (and I’ve not looked seriously if the seat could be modified for my height), the Pipistrel Explorer is what I’d go for.
It was 1015 to 0915 so 23hrs only
I am at 76kg and trying to get down to 74… difficult!
GA pilots are not the most healthy community, unsurprisingly
Antonio wrote:
If you want to go places with friends or family
Back to reality. If you want to “go places” with friends and family, the easiest, cheapest, fastest, less stressful method is: car, train, Boeing, boat, bus. This is not what this is about. What this is about is spending time in the air in a private aircraft together with family and friends, an aircraft piloted by you. It’s all about the journey. How this is done, what kind of journey and what kind of aircraft is mostly decided by time, your particular aviation taste, and money. The process of going places by air can be done with literally anything that is capable of taking off from the ground. Today, most pilots do this in 2 seaters. However, more often than not, they go in “packs” of 2-4 aircraft or more, this is also “with family and friends”.
When landing at “a place” it typically looks like this (2 or more aircraft landing in a row and parking):
In the air, we usually fly in formation, at least with aircraft of similar speed. But then again, some don’t like that, and always flies alone.
This is how “going places” usually is done all over Europe today. Some go far, other take shorter trip, and it’s all about the journey together with friends. In a way you can say the VW bus is replaced with motorcycles in the modern European GA world. Instead of “Captains”, we are “Hells Angels” roaming the skies. You can still go by a VW bus of course if that’s what you want. Exactly how, nobody really cares. Lots of people do both in fact.
Owning such a “motorcycle” makes a whole lot of sense, mostly because that’s how this whole UL thing is designed. This isn’t necessarily the case for a VW bus.
Emir wrote:
I’m still at 75 kg not going anywhere for year and years.
Same here!
And here. 🙂
LeSving wrote:
This is not what this is about
I guess there are different ways…hence the mission-dependant ownership aspect.
