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Front & Passenger Seat Weight limit

Asked by: 2232 views , , , ,
Commercial Pilot, Private Pilot, Student Pilot

I had a little debate today about W&B with my partner on our airplane which I am hoping the community can help settle it for me.

It has to do with the Front & Passenger arm line for our Cessna R182 terminating at 400 pounds.  Is this a weight limit for the aircraft or not? 

Basically can we put a 200 pound & a 250 guy upfront or not? 

  1. I say yes since there's no reference to a max weight limit in the POH like there is to the baggage compartment. 
  2. He says no we can't since the line ends at 400 pounds.

[LOADING GRAPH FOR CESSNA R182]

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1 Answers



  1. Bryan on Jul 09, 2022

    Notice on the chart that the baggage areas (both A and B) and the fuel specify a max? The fact that the two passenger lines do not says that they did not intend this to be a maximum–or they would have labeled it just like they did the baggage and fuel. The trick is figuring out the moment if you go over 400. Up to 500, you can just extend the line on the graph and get your moment. Then it’s just a matter of knowing that if you have 450 lbs up front and a full load of fuel, you will be very close to max allowable forward CG in that plane.

    A lot of loading and performance graphs stop once they get beyond what is likely going to happen. But that does not change the fact that moment is just weight * arm and can be calculated for any weight. Unless there is a placard in the plane or a line in the POH that specifies a max weight at a given station (like the baggage compartments), you can load as you please as long as you make sure the CG is in the envelope.

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