737 weight restrictions

Alchemy

Alchemy

Well-Known Member
Anyone know why a 737 would be weight restricted going from LAS-AUS on a good weather day? It was a -300 model I think. I was denied the jumpseat and several non rev pax were bumped off because of a weight problem. Not complaining, I was more than happy to leave out of consideration for safety, but for some reason I was under the impression that 73's didn't have these problems too often.

I've heard of some of the older 73's getting restricted on the longer 4+ hour flighs in the winter time, but this is the first time I've experienced it on a flight less than 3 hours, not to mention it was eastbound so the wind was at our back. Is density altitude a problem in vegas even with temps in the 80's?
 
Hard to say. The crews have much discretion in fixing weight restricted flights. Using longer runways, taking into account headwind factors, half weights, bleeds off takeoff etc...

It is very rare that I ever leave anybody due to weight. I happen to fly with a very sharp pencil. Some captains are less flexible in their math. Seriously, do you think one or two non-revs or jumpseaters will make a difference on a 140,000 pound aircraft?

I was once denied a jumpseat due to being 90 pounds over on a 170,000 pound airplane. Just not my day I guess.
 
Thanks for the reply. I can sympathize with the crew of the flight in question; working with RJ's as I do, you definitely need to get creative if you want to maximize payload. Some limitations are easy to work with, whereas others are black and white. Plus, with accuload on the mainline jets, I guess that a lot of the number crunching is taken out of the cockpit. It was actually the gate agent who initially come down and told me "I need to take you off", of course, I hung around for a bit until the captain came out and verified that :) . He was very apologetic but it still just made me curious about the potential reason.

On the RJ's we sometimes hit a zero fuel limit on weight restrictions, and there isn't much we can do at that point. Maybe it was something similair, since vegas is a leisure destination there are probably more checked bags than normal. On CAL the only time I've come close to getting bumped off was IAH-EWR on a very foggy day in Newark. I believe it was a -500 on that route, but I still managed to get on (I was actually a PS0 deadhead but when the gate agents were looking for targets they saw a uniform and jumped right in). Luckily my old AUS-IAH commute never really had any payload restrictions, or at least you guys were great about fitting us in all the time.
 
I never saw a weight restricted 737 at SWA the 3 years I was there. I've seen some that were within the envelope on BALANCE, though. All were -300 models. The -700 you can load backwards, and it'll still be in the envelope. We tried to get it out of CG a couple of times, and we couldn't do it. Granted, this was SWA and they might have some creative numbers...

The CRJ....well, that thing came off the assembly line weight restricted, I think. :)
 
The first flight we tried to make going PHX-LAS was an A320 and the gate agent said they were weight restricted and had to leave 7 seats open. I think in the end the weight restriction was solved and they packed it full, but we were surprised to hear that an A320 on a 1-hour flight in good weather from long runways was restricted.
 
Sharp pencils are the way to go. Let's face it, the weights we're using are all just averages anyhow.

Checked bags, carry-ons, passengers, etc.....all estimates. 90 lbs here or there isn't going to make the plane fall out of the sky.
 
The only time I saw the 737 weight restricted was the -500 out of SNA. When CAL put the extra seats in it, it automatically became weight restricted out of there. This is, of course, due to the short length of Runway 19 and the "cutback" procedure. I had a Captain offer to take Runway 1 and that got everybody, plus 2 cockpit jumpseaters on. Most of the time, they were holding 15 or so seats out of SNA. Now, it's all -700s, so it's not an issue.
 
It could be a landing weight restriction on the other end. If there's bad weather there or dispatch is anticipating holding, they may have tanked the airplane up.
 
Velocipede said:
It could be a landing weight restriction on the other end. If there's bad weather there or dispatch is anticipating holding, they may have tanked the airplane up.
Click to expand...

If there was a landing weight restriction it definitely wasn't weather related.....beautiful day at the destination and no alternate req'd.
 
calcapt said:
I was once denied a jumpseat due to being 90 pounds over on a 170,000 pound airplane. Just not my day I guess.
Click to expand...

Sounds like when I was leaving DTW on a DC-9. We got about half way out to the runway and they found out they had to taxi back to let one person off.

Then when we pulled up to the gate, they thought we were an incoming plane and started to offload all our bags.
 
Screaming_Emu said:
Sounds like when I was leaving DTW on a DC-9. We got about half way out to the runway and they found out they had to taxi back to let one person off.

Then when we pulled up to the gate, they thought we were an incoming plane and started to offload all our bags.
Click to expand...

Gotta love NWA.....
 
I was bumped off a B737 going from STL-MDW because of a weight restriction, and I was nearly bumped off a B737 going from SAT-MDW for the same reason. Each time I have seen a weight restriction issue, it is because of fuel tankering for weather.
 
Screaming_Emu said:
Sounds like when I was leaving DTW on a DC-9. We got about half way out to the runway and they found out they had to taxi back to let one person off.

Then when we pulled up to the gate, they thought we were an incoming plane and started to offload all our bags.
Click to expand...


That captain needs a whoopin....
 
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