Capt. Kirk
On my next annual, I want to have you around to remove my co-pilots seat. I'd like to know how you got a good nights sleep after that friggin spring ripped the skin off four of your fingers. Also, how'd you get it back in place to leave? On my plane, you have to stretch that same friggin spring until it has the equivalent energy of half a stick of dynamite and then hook into that teeny, teeny hole that only a Cirque du Soleil contortionist has any hope of seeing. If you were Helen Keller with Mike Tysons arms grafted on, it might be easy. Rather than risk injury in the bush, I will continue to sleep in the semi-fetal position.
MTV
Mike, you sure know how to extend a thread
Your point is well taken though. Folks should respect numbers at the edge of the envelope and just learn to play inside the fence. I think max gross weight is abused more regularly than, say, Vne, but they are both valid operational limitations. Will your wings fall off if you exceed Vne by 5%? Probaly not, but you had better be smooth on the controls and you had better not encounter any turbulence. Being anywhere outside the fence exposes you to hazards that require additional considerations that you may not be aware of. The insidious nature of max gross makes it potentially the most dangerous (Damn, I forgot the bowling balls!!) because it doesn't LOOK dangerous. The sight picture from my plane at Vne is scary enough to discourage frequent visits, but the four bowling balls fit nicely way in the back.
I wish folks would look more at the latitude they have in the smooth grassy playground inside the envelope. The OP was ready to dismiss the Maule on the basis of useful load. Useful load though, is more than a mere number. Here's another real life example: I left Anchorage Lake Hood Strip with 3 people and bags, flew to Ninilchik on the Kenai peninsula near Homer. Spent the day on the beach, unloaded one passenger and bags, removed the rear seat and loaded in 4 big coolers of ice and salmon. These were coolers that my straw-sized arms couldn't handle alone, but all together didn't put us over gross, not by a long shot. We were off the gravel strip in a few hundred feet, took the long way home and landed with plenty of fuel. Nothing challenging, nothing extraordinary, but the long winded point of the story is that with a Husky, the whole "mission" would have become a fox/chicken/grain problem requiring multiple trips. I think this is what some of the posters were hinting at. Flexibility doesn't have a number attached to it, so it's much harder to judge. If the "mission" is to land on a sand bar shorter and rougher than Greg or Lonnie, you'll probably end up on your back one day. Meanwhile, I will be having a great time just enjoying the hell out of my plane, flying around the playground.
The guy had good taste.
