How does an airline determine the weight / balance of a full aircraft?

Question

Is an aircraft weighed and balanced somehow before departure? Or would it be impossible to "overload" the aircraft with passengers and cargo?

Sherwin, I appreciate your response, but it doesn't answer my question.

I understand how weight and balance affect the aircraft. I can find that online.

What I am asking is...

In practice, how does an airline weigh and balance an aircraft? Do they weigh the luggage and other cargo? Do they estimate the weight of the passengers?

Do the cargo handlers balance the weight in the cargo hold?

I'm not looking for a copy of the aircraft operation manual...want to know how it happens in real life.

Answer 1

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Answer 2

I've had plenty of friends from my air force days who were crew chiefs. People are not weighed, but distrubited based on a mean weight. Whereas, cargo is typically palletized and the pallets are weighed in order to determine their position within a plane. However, commercial passenger aircraft will also use a mean weight for baggage - hence the dimension restrictions and excess weight fees to discourage deviance from a mean weight. If a passenger aircraft is also taking on cargo that cargo is distrubited based on actual weights; however, the passenger luggage is not.

Answer 3

how does an airline weigh and balance an aircraft? Do they weigh the luggage and other cargo? Do they estimate the weight of the passengers?

Yes thats what they do.

Yes, Cargo handlers are balance and weight in the cargo hold.

Answer 4

voxninerbox is the closest to the answer.
Airlines use a "standard" weight for passengers (80kg) and allocate seats to cater for the balance of the aircraft. Same for the cargo.
If the aircraft is full, it does not really matter: the charge is uniformy allocated and will be - BY DESIGN - within the envelop.
If it is near empty, it does not matter either: the ratio aircraft weight to load is way to big, and stays within limits.
However, I have to say that if an aircraft has only a few seats (10-20), I have known autralian pilots WEIGHING their passengers!
(Apparently, the Arborigenes have a much higher density then we do, and where they sit becomes important!)

Answer 5

for the duration of the mass and stability calcs the ICAO standards that airlines ought to save on with are as such, they anticipate based on airplane length, that the there is an person-friendly weight for passengers. it is theory that the person-friendly weight for a guy on a 30+ seat airplane is 84KG, and as such the at 9 stone they ought to offer you a refund, yet then they might ought to cost the fatties the greater. the luggage is weighed for one reason purely, it is then loaded to make certain the the airplane centre of gravity is balanced, so given the figures for the passengers, the luggage is weighed to make advantageous the airplane is able to take off interior the right limits of the layout of the airplane.

Answer 6

This has to be done by the sum of its parts. The weights of it's components ( including passengers and steerage) are added up.
Then it is a known value, a constant. They need to know this to load the plane and also to calculate fuel needed for the journey.
Then the fuel has weight,too, right? And they have to factor in variables like the weather...They always err on the side of caution with all design values...so I would say we are pretty safe from danger of overloading.

Answer 7

Tare weight+fuel carried weight and passenger and cargo or only cargo weights are added including crew.CG with passengers is usually well in limits as they sit in seats which are degined to cater cg limits for and aft.Cargo is placed by weight in position and lashed.Consideration are taken CG shifting by virtue of fuel consumption.A aircraft has to take off only with CG limits it is designed.Limits for and aft both are unsafe.

Answer 8

The people loading the aircraft know approximately how much the baggage weighs and they guesstimate the weight of the people and load the plane accordingly.