What is the Take Off Weight of the O2?

[AussieO2]

Care to tell what the VH rego will be ? VH-OZA was registered to an O-2A, but cancelled some time ago without the a/c being flown.

[ConwayB]

G'day Mate,

Sorry I haven't replied earlier.

As for your query, I have reserved the rego VH-OTU (OH-Two) and am awaiting notification from CASA that I can use the smaller rego stickers instead of the 150mm letters.

The machine is currently at Archerfield and should be given its CofA and CofR next week whereupon it'll grace the airways and be based in YBAF and Townsville.

Where are you based in Brisbane? Are you a 337 owner?

Feel free to email me. My contact details are on my website at www.ipas.com.au

Cheers
Conway

[Mayhemxpc]

As others have said, your weight limit is 4300 pounds. Before you think that it should really be 4400, 4600, or 4850 (and therefore inclined to overload it) I offer some considerations: 1: USAF limits said everything over 4400 had to be on the wings. This was so you could jettison the weight if you had an engine failure. If you can't drop the weight, don't lose an engine. 2. Check to see what that extra weight does to your performance, even if both engines are running. A takeoff at 4500# requires more airspeed, 150 feet more ground run and almost 300 more feet to get over a 50' obstacle on a standard day. Other performance is similarly affected. 3. The O-2A is a 337B, which has a MGW of 4300#. Every year or so, Cessna increased the 337 MGW without doing anything else to the airplane based on demonstrated performance. But each time they did that, max ceiling, SE ceiling, time to climb and more all dropped. In short, don't lightly consider overloading that plane just because the U.S. Air Force flew at higher weights.

Its a heck of a fun plane to fly, and I can get my wife and three boys in the plane, with some baggage, and still stay within the envelope.

[ConwayB]

Thanks for your post.