A PA-28 pilot flew the aircraft over the maximum allowable weight because the pilot operating handbo...

Narrative:

I was planning on giving a ride to two young women passenger. I had planned to have the fuel 'tabbed'; which is 17 gallons per side. That would have given me more than adequate margin below gross and I wouldn't have to even check west&B. When I showed up early at the airport; the fuelers had topped it up that morning; and the aircraft had 1.0 hours on a full tank - using 8-9 gallons; by calculation and roughly crosschecked visually. The passenger called and said that there were 3 passengers. I grabbed the poh and used the 1250 pounds dry weight and added fuel and oils and their weights (3 petite 20ish year old girls) and figured that if I flew off another 5 gallons or so; we'd be legally under max; with a decent margin. So; I did fly and double checking; we were comfortably under gross...the flight went fine and all was ok. After the flight; my buddy; says; 'I don't think a cherokee will carry all of them'. I told him that I'd done the calculation and that it would. And he still says... 'I don't know....' (but he commonly says that). So; after he left; I was talking to a flight instructor and I asked about it - and we sat down and figure it out. What's the certified weight? 1250. No; I mean the certified weight. Ouch! (It dawned on me) I had used the poh 1250 weight and not the certified weight. The certified weight was 1350 - a full 100 pounds greater than the listed poh weight. Recalculating the weights; instead of a comfortable margin; at worst fuel quantity estimation; I was over gross by about 33 pounds. What did I learn? 1. To use certified weight; instead of the 'factory' dry weight. 2. To call fuel service that day and make reverify that they don't top off the tanks (we had called the day before and asked that it not be topped) 3. To plan better and make sure that it's clear on the number of passengers.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A PA-28 pilot flew the aircraft over the maximum allowable weight because the pilot operating handbook (POH) weight for an aircraft was used instead of the actual certified weight; which was 100 LBS heavier than the POH weight.

Narrative: I was planning on giving a ride to two young women passenger. I had planned to have the fuel 'tabbed'; which is 17 gallons per side. That would have given me more than adequate margin below gross and I wouldn't have to even check W&B. When I showed up early at the airport; the fuelers had topped it up that morning; and the aircraft had 1.0 hours on a full tank - Using 8-9 gallons; by calculation and roughly crosschecked visually. The passenger called and said that there were 3 passengers. I grabbed the POH and used the 1250 LBS dry weight and added fuel and oils and their weights (3 petite 20ish year old girls) and figured that if I flew off another 5 gallons or so; we'd be legally under max; with a decent margin. So; I did fly and double checking; we were comfortably under gross...The flight went fine and all was ok. After the flight; my buddy; says; 'I don't think a Cherokee will carry all of them'. I told him that I'd done the calculation and that it would. And he still says... 'I don't know....' (but he commonly says that). So; after he left; I was talking to a flight instructor and I asked about it - and we sat down and figure it out. What's the certified weight? 1250. No; I mean the certified weight. OUCH! (it dawned on me) I had used the POH 1250 weight and not the certified weight. The certified weight was 1350 - a full 100 LBS greater than the listed POH weight. Recalculating the weights; instead of a comfortable margin; at worst fuel quantity estimation; I was over gross by about 33 LBS. What did I learn? 1. To use certified weight; instead of the 'factory' dry weight. 2. To call fuel service THAT DAY and make reverify that they don't top off the tanks (we had called the day before and asked that it not be topped) 3. To plan better and make sure that it's clear on the number of passengers.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	844492
Time
Date	200901
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Dusk
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	VFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Aircraft Documentation
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 5 Flight Crew Total 867 Flight Crew Type 865
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Weight And Balance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

A PA-28 pilot flew the aircraft over the maximum allowable weight because the pilot operating handbook (poh) weight for an aircraft was used instead of the actual certified weight; which was 100 pounds heavier than the poh weight.