When I was free-lancing regularly on the A109C, I got a job for an owner on the outskirts of London. The task involved collecting the helicopter from Biggin Hill, flying to collect him from about 10 minutes away then taking him to pick up his guests at the opposite side of London before dropping them at a hotel about another 15 minutes away for a spot of sunday lunch. I did the fuel calcs very carefully, as anyone who has flown the A109A/C series will be intimately familiar with. The outcome was that I'd need an intermediate refuel which I arranged to do whilst they were having lunch as it would have no impact on their schedule.
As I landed at the lunch location, I asked the owner if he wanted me to shutdown or whether he'd prefer a rotors running drop-off as I needed to refuel. This question was met with indignation from him as he expected me to shutdown and thought I was taking the p1$$ by needing to take on fuel. "Why didn't you get fuel before we left?".
The standard weight and balance response came but he wasn't impressed. What put the icing on the cake for me were his immortal words "Well, 'Dave' (the regular pilot) never has to refuel when we make this trip and we do it most weeks". (name changed to protect the guilty)
I can't remember the exact numbers now, but to make the trip with any sort of sensible reserve, would have put us 100kg over MAUM. Somewhat worryingly, 'Dave' is a well known pilot in those parts and revered in certain circles - but it wasn't the first time Dave's cavalier attitude had come to my attention. Needless to say, I didn't get invited back to fly for him; I can't say I was perturbed. I'm sure there are hundreds of similar anecdotes if you know who to ask.
JJ
(Edited for typo)
Last edited by jellycopter; 17th September 2012 at 14:34.