Originally Posted by
Ascend Charlie
External loads are not a weight that has to be borne by the skids. They can be pickled off, to come back to a safe weight for landing on the skids.
Agreed if your external load puts you above the Max internal GW of 5250lbs at lower altitudes.....
However if you use the graph to plot internal and external loads as you get higher you'll find you can carry more externally than internally at the same altitude/OAT and still be well below the max skid weight?