9121u wrote:... a good brantly has plenty of power if flown within its limits.so any pilot over 200 pounds needs to lose weight.plain and simple.don't make the brantly solve your problem.its yours.
I have to disagree with this. The Brantly has a 600 lb useful load (its limits). With that you *should* be able to carry
two 200lb people and a full load of fuel. That is still within the weight limits of the aircraft, but not necessarily doable. Your example of 240 + 135 is well within those limits. If you do get close to the limits with people weight, then don't put in as much fuel. 400 lbs in the cabin is not that unusual and is not overweight, even with full fuel. Some Brantlys have more power than others. Some in the summertime can only safely carry 1 person with a full load of fuel. Others you can load it up with fuel and have two 200 lb people and still be ok. I have flown several where there is 350+/- lbs in the cabin and only 20 gallons of fuel and we still struggle when doing ground work, and even have to do running takeoffs sometimes. That is 130 lbs less than the max useful load of the aircraft. A pilot can be 250 or even 300 lbs and not be outside the "limits" of the Brantly. As long as he can get in it and still follows the weight and balance calculations, the aircraft is not overweight and should be able to fly just fine. Some cannot.
If the helicopter has a useful load of 600 pounds, you'd think it would be able to carry 600 pounds. Of course higher density altitude and other conditions will affect this, but sometimes even 450-500 lbs are too much. The Brantly has plenty of power if flown with full fuel and only one pilot, for sure. With that you are likely 200-250 lbs less than the max useful load.
There have been many accidents where the pilot, passenger, and fuel were "within limits" (e.g., less than 600 lbs), but still on takeoff could not make it through ETL, settled back down and crashed. Or were doing ground maneuvers and ran out of power. I constantly teach low RRPM recovery and low power takeoffs, not because its nice and useful to know, but out of necessity.
If you want to use "limits" that are 200 lbs below the published useful load, then I would agree; the Brantly has plenty of power, under almost all conditions. But if you use the published figures and fly in the upper 20% of these limits (which is much of the time when there are 2 people on board) then sometimes, in some aircraft and conditions you have enough power. Sometimes you do not.