Litigation

[ghostflyer]

It has been pointed out to me by my family members [law experts??] that some people have published on the net programs for doing weight and balance calculations for your aircraft. This opens a can of worms for all in the horrible event that if some one gets hurt or property damaged. So I asked my daughter what can we do ? A disclaimer must be locked into the program and is displayed every time its displayed and a box is ticked that you understand the ramifications of using this program to continue into the program. Plus the wording as a example " For entertainment value only and not for use in aviation matters, all aviation related activities /calculations should be used in conjunction with the relative approved aircraft manuals and the appropiate goverment regulations."

DISCLAIMER.. This is unpaid legal advice and is only a public generated opinion .

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Thank you for the advice and I will take it in the spirit that it was offered.

I've authored W&B spreadsheets for about 25 aircraft over the last 10 years. Most are currently being used by two companies under their FAR part 135 regulations to figure the weight and balance of every leg of all the Helicopter Emergency Medical Flights they do which could easily be 30,000 legs a year. So, for me, the cats pretty much out of the bag you might say and we're not going to be able to get the cat back in the bag for some time.

Like all things we do today, we have to continually judge and decide our own personal risk to reward ratio. I've never been concerned with the spreadsheets I created. For one, even for the sheets I did at work, I wasn't paid a dime to create them. The users, those companies that I was employed I was employed as a pilot, they chose to use them on their own. People who have downloaded the sheets I created for the 170 have done so for free from a forum on the world wide web. I'm not sure how much validity a court would give them but haven't considered it to be much.

I may however consider adding some fun and entertainment wording to any spreadsheets I can.

But where to we stop?

{This post is offered for fun and Entertainment. Please check the following box before commenting ( ) }

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Bruce Fenstermacher wrote:
This post is offered for fun and Entertainment. Please check the following box before commenting (X)


Too funny Bruce.

I was trying to bring some humor to an otherwise serious consideration. Thanks for recognizing that.

Besides taking a moment to reflect on my spreadsheets, I also reviewed our disclaimers here at the forum and we might even change a few. So I want to assure ghostflyer that his post is appreciated.

[wingnut]

For some reason this reminded me of a disclaimer in the paperwork which accompanied the Dolly Parton tip tanks for a Bonanza. I'm paraphrasing, but it said "Installation of these tanks can cause wing structural failure, serious bodily injury, and/or sudden death". All I know is; that much fuel at the tip doesn't look right