Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

91.103

Asked by: 1622 views Flight Instructor

This might be a dumb question. But for an intro flight, do you ask the client for their weight so you could comply with 91.103 to be able to calculate takeoff and landing distances? The reason why I'm asking is because on all the flights that I've gone on while I wasn't PIC (such as an intro flight), the instructor never asked me for my weight, so it wouldn't have been possible for them to comply with 91.103.

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer


    Russ Roslewski on Feb 04, 2022

    Aviation is full of rules of thumb and making safe assumptions. They didn’t weigh you the last time you were on an airliner, either.

    Many people, myself included, if they will be flying a particular airplane a lot, will run a series of weight and balance calculations with typical loads. For example, you may determine that if you are carrying one other person in a 172, in the front seat, they can weigh up to 300 pounds and be well within the envelope. So if you take up someone who obviously weighs less than 300 pounds, there’s no real need to calculate anything.

    If, though, you are loading up 4 people and bags, you do a little more calculating.

    As for performance, if the performance numbers at max gross weight work out, then you know you’re okay at any weight less than that.

    +2 Votes Thumb up 2 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.