Over weight landing

[inducedrag]

Can we do an over weight landing in case of normal enroute landing ?

[wiggy]

If there's no emergency involved I would suggest generally the answer is "no", but what does your ops manual say?

[inducedrag]

It's silent

[wiggy]

OK

FWIW I'll paraphrase ours:

An overweight landing is only permitted if delay in landing will expose occupants to additional risk, or where the QRH says land ASAP, or if there is fleet specific guidance making a landing above MLW permissible ( I've never seen such guidance on any fleet I've been on.).

So in short for us at least if it's a "normal enroute landing unscheduled" for we have to be below MLW.

[Goldenrivett]

Hi inducedrag,

Interesting question which Boeing has considered here.

"Due to continuing increases in the cost of fuel, airlines want help deciding whether to land overweight, burn off fuel, or jettison fuel. Each choice has its own set of factors to consider. Holding to burn off fuel or jettisoning fuel prior to landing will result in increased fuel cost and time related operational costs. Landing overweight requires an overweight landing inspection with its associated cost. Many airlines provide their flight crews with guidelines to enable the pilot to make an intelligent decision to burn off fuel, jettison fuel, or land overweight considering all relevant factors of any given situation."

If there isn't an urgent / emergency reason to land ASAP, then I suggest you get approval from your Ops to calculate the cheapest option before you attempted to land overweight.

[wiggy]

Interesting,

Many airlines provide their flight crews with guidelines to enable the pilot to make an intelligent decision to burn off fuel, jettison fuel, or land overweight considering all relevant factors of any given situation."

Guess that explains the caveat in our OM about "fleet specific guidance"...so e.g; it might be allowable within certain limits at a specific airport if someone has done a cost/benefit of landing overweight and needing the inspection vs. the commercial gain.

If there isn't an urgent / emergency reason to land ASAP, then I suggest you get approval from your Ops to calculate the cheapest option before you attempted to land overweight.

Absolutely...e.g. try that somewhere without suitable engineering cover and.....

[lederhosen]

Landing due to a sick passenger is a pretty acceptable reason for an overweight landing on my aircraft (no fuel dumping). There are some limits regarding touchdown forces and inspections. But in this case we land first and explain later. A trickier one would be on your way to the Canaries realising that for whatever reason you are not comfortable with fuel remaining but are above max landing weight for Faro or wherever. Never had it happen, but have given it some thought.

[RAT 5]

Many airlines provide their flight crews with guidelines to enable the pilot to make an intelligent decision

Even more airlines don't.
Some airlines do not even understand that concept.

[Piltdown Man]

Each of the several different (smallish) types I've flown have had different overweight landing restrictions. One allowed a 500 kgs landing without penalty, another allows a 500 kgs overweight landing providing the sink rate is less than a certain value' again with no penalty but the aircraft I fly now has no margin (but if you pay you can have higher maximum landing weight).

So when faced with an exceedence I waste fuel. It's generally not much but it does tick the boxes. But if I have to land I will.

[inducedrag]

Land as soon as possible in red as per QRH