Would you or do you takeoff above MTOM?

Peter wrote:

The 255kg is not in any way exceptional. My TB20 has 500kg total payload (1400kg MTOW, 900kg empty) so with full fuel it has about 270kg for passengers and junk.

The PA24-260C is 3200lbs MTOW and 1911lbs empty, so it is 1289lbs for full fuel (90gl) and pax.

Rwy20 wrote:

I’m not so sure even about that, because using flaps actually makes your climb angle shallower. There is really no free lunch associated with the usage of flaps. And if your airspeed was below Vx, then it was even less smart to hang in there with flaps below Vx. It sounds like what my instructor would describe as a “no future situation

True.
I don’t remember what the airspeed was but to raise the flaps below 500’ just felt wrong, I really don’t know, but I had to keep the aircraft in the air, by removing the flaps the aircraft might have lost some height, something that I was very short of.

Ben wrote:

by removing the flaps the aircraft might have lost some height

Yes, that’s the “no future” part. Thanks for sharing your experience openly here. I guess most pilots in that situation don’t ever get to share their line of thought that led them to being in this position.

I think a controlled crash ahead might sometimes be your best option in this case; better than a stall/spin. Even better is to check W&B beforehand.

As long as the aircraft is climbing and no obstacles are in the flight path, I’d just keep going, if possible not turning or only very shallowly… one thing I learnt when flying single engine in a light twin is patience. And that if it isn’t climbing, check the flaps & gear…

That was the biggest lesson learnt, “do the numbers, don’t assume”. My early mistakes thought me to be very religious. When I bought the Comanche I have studied the Service Manual together with the Parts Catalogue so I know how things work and to enable me to diagnose faults, read the very thick POH (the one that was written by the Comanche owners group) and based on it wrote my own check list including emergencies. I had my lessons the hard way and am glad to be able to talk about them.

Another one was in the same Arrow, with the same shiny PPL and the wet IMC ink in the logbook into a black cloud near Rochester. Have you ever seen your VMC needle going 1500’ in both direction? This one was a good lesson in “how an aircraft should be controlled”.

" few of them ever go outside their own country"

and

“are among the most “international” flyers of all”

and

“German pilots are the ones who fly abroad the most.”

are not logically exclusive

If speed was really a key thing then everybody would be flying a 300HP turbo SEP, on oxygen, at FL200, because that is the only way to get the “sales brochure” figures like 200kt. Otherwise, much more than about 170kt, in a 4-seat tourer, is going to be costing a lot of avgas per mile.

Flyer59 wrote:

SR22T G5, with a/c: 255 kg

The SR22T G5 has a 1300 pound (589kg) useful load.

Flyer59: I have had that as well once in a Cirrus SR20 with Avidyne screens. In the SR22T with Perspective you would get a flaps warning if you would forget them. But … now with the new smartCHECK “talking” checklist just was just released in the AppStore by another EuroGA user, you would be reminded by the audio in your headset, right? :-)