Clearedtoreenter
Judging by your handle, I presume you own and/or operate an M20R? How do those things perform on take-off at max weight? Would they be tolerant to overloading and out of balance in the way I hear some types might be?
Yes and yes.
The M20R with full fuel, 2 POB and a bit of baggage will be just under MTOW with the CG close to the forward limit. In a ferry configuration the CG moves well aft, although I was surprised the NTSB found the CG of VH PPA was outside the envelope. I know (not from direct experience of course) that 115% MTOW is nothing for an M20R, having passengered in one about that weight from Lakeland to Orlando back in 2000. In short, easy to go over MTOW if you're not careful, but hard to get the CG outside the envelope in normal configuration.
I've pasted the flight data sequence from the NTSB report which shows the T/O seemed normal considering the additional weight, and right at the end of this post is actual data of what an M20R at MTOW does for comparison.
For VH PPA the ground roll of 36 seconds was unspectacular, and it then achieved a ROC of 490 fpm up to the 84 second mark, then 750 fpm over the next 47 seconds.
At that point it went unhinged, with marked speed and altitude oscillations which I believe were as a result of instability from the rearward CG, and considering the ferry tank was not strapped down, it might have been that the fuel sloshed forward and aft within the unrestrained bladder giving it a dynamic CG.
The accident airplane was equipped with a Garmin GPSMap 496 global positioning systems receiver. Historical flight data from the unit was extracted and revealed the entire accident flight sequence. The data indicated that the airplane entered runway 31 at 0624:20, and immediately commenced with the takeoff roll. The airplane began to accelerate while on a heading of 322 degrees true for the next 36 seconds while remaining at field elevation (230 feet msl).
For the next 84 seconds the airplane continued to accelerate to a ground speed of about 138 miles per hour (mph), climbing to 915 feet mean sea level (msl), while still on runway heading. The airplane then began a left turn to 257 degrees, reaching its maximum altitude of 1,502 feet msl, 47 seconds into the turn.
For the next 24 seconds the airplane's groundspeed increased to 141 mph with a corresponding 222 feet decrease in altitude. Over the next 89 seconds, the airplane began a left turn with an accompanying series of three diverging groundspeed and altitude oscillations varying between 67 and 144 mph, and 1,383 and 502 feet msl, respectively. The last recorded position occurred at an altitude of 467 feet (300 feet agl) with the airplane on a heading of 344 degrees
Derived from GPS data, an actual M20R (not VH PPA) take-off at MTOW took 25 Secs from 6 kt rolling start, to VR +5 and 50 Ft above runway.