There’s a reason most of us don’t calculate takeoff requirements, weight and balance, crosswind components or fuel requirements before absolutely every flight: Having previously done so for similar or less favorable conditions, we already know everything’s okay. If there was room to get off the runway with your two 250-pound cousins on board, departing solo shouldn’t present a problem.
It’s a perfectly reasonable shortcut provided you’re mindful of the unstated assumption of “other things being equal.” If the flight with your cousins used a 7000-foot runway with a brisk headwind on a frigid January morning, you can’t reliably presume the same performance on a solo flight from a short mountain strip in July. Continue Reading
