Overweight in a Twin Otter—but how?
All the passengers were seated and my co-pilot walked through the cabin, making sure that everyone had their seat belts fastened. The ground crew closed the main door and gave me the thumbs up to start the left engine. Paul, my co-pilot, who I had flown with on many occasions, said, “Cap, everyone’s belted in, full capacity, and the manifest looks OK.”
I checked the instrument panel and made sure the right engine, which we kept running while on these short stops, was still within temperature limits and we had good battery power to start the left engine. Just before starting the engine, I turned to the co-pilot and asked for the manifest and load sheet that had to be approved and signed before takeoff.
Paul handed me the clipboard and said full cargo and passengers: eighteen passengers and 1,100 pounds of cargo. I checked to make sure the total reflected his words and that our maximum weight for takeoff did not exceed the limits of the Twin Otter series 200 we were flying. Max takeoff weight for this aircraft was 11,579 pounds. The load sheet showed the correct figure. However, the manifest sheet was a bit messy and smudged, but I was more concerned about the load sheet than the pax/load manifest.
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