Who does the weight and balance for the freight dawgs?

BrianNC

BrianNC

Well-Known Member
Who does the weight and balance for the freight? How do you insure that it is loaded properly and withing CG range considering that some of you carry some pretty heavy freight? do you just have to trust the loaders for those that don't load it yourself?

What about you that do load it yourself? Is it put on a palate in the proper loading configuration and you transfer it the same way to the plane?

Sorry if these seem to be dumb questions but I have no idea how the freight business works for the pilots.
 
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Who does the weight and balance for the freight? How do you insure that it is loaded properly and withing CG range considering that some of you carry some pretty heavy freight? do you just have to trust the loaders for those that don't load it yourself?

What about you that do load it yourself? Is it put on a palate in the proper loading configuration and you transfer it the same way to the plane?

Sorry if these seem to be dumb questions but I have no idea how the freight business works for the pilots.

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Who are you talking about? Are you referring to more of the UPS or Fedex large planes? Or the smaller 135 freight operators? For the big guys, they get bins pre-weighted and load planning is done in advance. For the smaller guys, stuff is brought out in bins that are also pre-weighed, but the cargo is removed from the bins and loaded into the planes. For them, it's up to the pilot to determine what will go where in his plane in order to maintain the CG, and for him to keep track of the amount of cargo coming onboard.
 
I was talking more about the 135 operators.

I was wondering if it was in pre-weighed boxes like you said and marked for the pilot to determine where it goes.
 
When I flew UPS contract, the cargo came out in pre-weighed bins that (obviously) had the cargo weight written on the side and the destination that the contents in that bin were going, so you'd know how much it weighed total. Items over (if I remember correctly) 50 lbs were also individually marked. It was up to the pilot to determine where he wanted to put stuff on the plane.

An interesting thing....the Chieftain, if you fully load the thing with fuel and have no cargo onboard, the CG of our birds was actually in excess of the forward limit! There was lead weights we'd fly with if ever in this condition. It was real tough to put a PA-31 on it's tail, unless you loaded a ton of heavy stuff in area D of the cabin [Chieftain has six areas for load, if I remember correctly, A-F....A being the nose compartment, B behind the cockpit, C center of cabin over the wings, D area of cabin from trailing edge to the back side of the airstairs, E small shelf of the aft wall of the cabin....F being the right and left wing lockers.]

When the load crews would bring the bins of cargo out, I'd always have them point the heavy stuff out, and single that out; but manily single out cargo depending on the destination. Depending on fit (and of course, weight limit for the particular Area), most of the heavy stuff would go in the nose locker.....and it'd rarely be full, simply because the heavy stuff tended to be bulkier. If it didn't fit there, I'd throw the bulk heavy stuff in Area B/C. Everything else, I'd pack around that stuff. Wing lockers, I'd save for envelopes and small boxes.

Key item: Since I always had multiple stops, it was a BIG no-no to "miss" dropping off something at a stop; eg- getting to your last stop and finding something "left over" that should've been dropped off previously. You see before where I said that I'd separate cargo on the ramp by destination...that was so I'd get a good mental "picture" of how much and what should be dropped off at each stop. In addition to that, I'd, if at all possible, try to load cargo for the last stop first, and first stop last. That way at an intermediate stop, I wasn't having to dig into the cabin past cargo I need to keep on board, in order to get to cargo I had to drop off. Further to that, I'd try to keep "markers" in the cabin between the cargo in order to "separate" cargo going to different places.....this helps to avoid the "missing a box" no-no previously mentioned. Some items I used to do this varied. If I had larger boxes, I'd use them as "walls" to separate cargo that was going to different destinations. If it was smaller stuff, then I'd use the cockpit window sun shades crammed inbetween cargo from different destinations in order to act as a wall. Additionally, I'd make a rough aircraft diagram with the various cargo Areas labled with a destination airport ICAO identifier, so I could know at a glance what was where. I'd make this diagram on the backside of my weight and balance sheet, that way I could keep it, since the front copy of the W/B sheet was kept by the station manager, while the carbon copy page was kept in the aircraft, and my diagram made on the back.
 
Hope it's not as complicated as it sounds.
grin.gif
 
My flying is a little different. We do a lot of auto parts, so I get a few big containers on skids, large boxes, large plastic cartons, etc. The sizes vary, but a common size is 4x4x(height varies) feet.

When I pick up the paperwork at dispatch for the trip, they'll have the number of skids or packages, the dimensions of each (unless it's a "loose-load" run like MikeD described above), and the weight of each (or total estimated weight in the case of a loose load).

If it's a heavy load, I check before takeoff to make sure that I'm not going to be overweight (the dispatcher also checks when they book the trip, but I doublecheck). That way if need be, they can de-fuel me as necessary. The Caravan can carry roughly 2400 lbs. of freight (give or take a little depending on the airplane), WITH full fuel (2200 lbs.). Unlike some airplanes, fuel burn does not affect the CG very much. It only moves very slightly forward as fuel is burned, which puts it more towards the center anyways.

Once I make sure I'm all set with fuel weight (that I have enough AND that I'll be underweight), I blast off to go get the freight. Once you've done this a few times, you pretty much can do the "balance" portion in your head for simple loads like a medium weight skid or two. If it's small, super heavy boxes, awkward sizes/weights, etc. (basically anything unusual), I still do a full W&B sheet because there are limits to how much weight you can put in each zone, and also limits on floor loading (lbs. per square foot). This I normally do enroute to the pickup point, or if I'm early, at the pickup point while I wait for the freight to arrive.

Loading these big skids is the hardest part, since the heavy ones have to be moved forward in the plane. I'll put the tailstand in, then guide the forklift into the door. Before they let down the skid, I put a couple of thin plastic "skis" under it so it will slide easier on the waxed wooden floor. If it's a plastic container, I skip that part, since they slide easy anyways.

If it is a plastic container under about 1000 lbs., I can usually muscle it forward myself. If it's a wooden pallet over about 900 lbs., I either use a crank (think manual winch), or a come-along, both of which are a slow pain in the ass process. Or, I demand the line guy get his ass up there and help me push ( j/k
grin.gif
). Loading it is harder than unloading. The floor in the Caravan slants downward slightly from front to back, making unloading a little easier.
 
Brian,

To add to the above posts.

I dont know how many places do this, but where I work we have what's called a "loading schedule".

The way we use this 'schedule' is that there is a predetermined order to loading weight in the aircraft. A simnplified example of this might be:

Cargo A
Cargo B, weight not greater than A
Cargo C, weight not greater than B
Avionics Bay, max weight xxx lbs
Nose bay, max weight yyy lbs
Rear Cargo Section, max weight zzz lbs
Cargo area "d" (this is the area adjacent to the door"
Wing lockers, you get the idea

This is a great arrangement. As long as my load is not over-weight and I load the airplane according to thse rules, then I will be in CG. And once you employ some common sense, you dont even need to sweat the details.

Lastly, when I do my Part 135 load manifest, i dont calc it all out. i just check the little box that says "loaded according to" blah blah blah. I just add:

empty
+ crew
+ cargo
=zero fuel weight
+ fuel
= total
and check the box. done! I taxi past AmFlight guys who have lots more paperwork to do!

Hope this is helpful.
Bluelake
 
Back when I was flying 135 freight the pilot was responsible for loading the plane and doing the W&B. After loading the Bandit a few time it was easy to know where to put the freight. I also had a program for my palm that allowed me to play around with the CG quickly before loading.
 
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