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Moved all of E+ to the back due to"weight balance"

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Moved all of E+ to the back due to"weight balance"

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Old May 4, 2016, 7:30 pm
  #31  
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I can't believe no one has asked the obvious question: how were there any empty seats on a BOS-SFO flight?
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Old May 4, 2016, 7:51 pm
  #32  
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Originally Posted by FrenchBullies1975
how were there any empty seats on a BOS-SFO flight?
Tuesday not in peak season. Not all that surprising to me.

Still better than the 9:30p EWR-PBI last night that went out with 7 revenue pax on a 73E.
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Old May 4, 2016, 8:24 pm
  #33  
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Originally Posted by sbm12
Good thing you're not responsible for aircraft loading or planning. Because this is spectacularly incorrect as noted by many others here, including pilots.
Then these machines should be designed better. I mean something thats the size of a small house should not be effected by where some measly 200 lb humans sit.
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Old May 4, 2016, 8:38 pm
  #34  
 
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Originally Posted by Ram Trucks
Then these machines should be designed better. I mean something thats the size of a small house should not be effected by where some measly 200 lb humans sit.
It's the laws of physics that would have to be redesigned.
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Old May 4, 2016, 8:41 pm
  #35  
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Originally Posted by alexperi
I find it so hard to believe that passenger positions have any real bearing on balance. These planes weigh many many tons, they have all the baggage in the cargo - how can a few people moving a few yards back or forward here or there make any difference whatsoever? I'd be happy to be corrected on this and given the science, but it seems a little odd...
Small changes in the placement of the mass can make big differences in how the aircraft controls. Big jets normally have enough margin that passengers don't get moved around but it can happen. I second the other poster who suspects misloaded (or perhaps the cargo destined for the back didn't make it for some reason) cargo. Passengers move themselves, cargo doesn't--which is faster to fix?
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Old May 4, 2016, 8:47 pm
  #36  
 
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I was quite amazed to read above that the center of gravity range is 20 inches or something on an aircraft that's 1,500 inches long. And judging from the weights shown on wikipedia, a half full 739 must weigh 140,000 to 150,000 lbs. I trust the airline's calculations and all, but from a customer relations standpoint, it seems like they could move customers from rows 22 - 28 further back in the plane and accomplish a similar effect.
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Old May 4, 2016, 9:21 pm
  #37  
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Originally Posted by Ram Trucks
Then these machines should be designed better. I mean something thats the size of a small house should not be effected by where some measly 200 lb humans sit.
They could be designed for more flexibility, at the expense of efficiency, which you'd have to "buy" back with improvements elsewhere. Instead they've chosen more efficiency with more operating restrictions. "99%" of the time you're fine, sometimes you have to move a few bodies when you have an adverse load for whatever reason (unusual cabin profile, misloaded cargo, whatever).

Originally Posted by YadiMolina
I trust the airline's calculations and all, but from a customer relations standpoint, it seems like they could move customers from rows 22 - 28 further back in the plane and accomplish a similar effect.
Only if there was room far enough back to do so.
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Old May 4, 2016, 9:54 pm
  #38  
 
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Originally Posted by Bear4Asian
And what do they do if the standard passenger actually onboard is obviously different? E.g. A group of XXXL footballers. Or a gaggle of choir boys?
apparently they didn't, or those 23 people won't have died:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/18/us...cials-say.html

I hope they do now but I highly doubt.
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Old May 5, 2016, 5:27 am
  #39  
 
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Originally Posted by mingw
apparently they didn't, or those 23 people won't have died:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/18/us...cials-say.html

I hope they do now but I highly doubt.
The article does not suggest that the passengers weighed more than the standard weight.
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Old May 5, 2016, 5:36 am
  #40  
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Originally Posted by ajGoes
The article does not suggest that the passengers weighed more than the standard weight.
Sure -- but bags count fr weight too, One could easily have added baggage to the quoted list. In this case...
...two bags in its tail baggage compartment were so heavy that it took two handlers to carry each of them
After the crash, Air Midwest and other carriers were ordered to survey a sample of their passengers, and their baggage, to determine if the weight assumptions were correct. On average, airlines flying small planes raised their assumption of weight by 30 pounds for each passenger with a bag, but Air Midwest raised its estimate by 40 pounds.
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Old May 5, 2016, 6:06 am
  #41  
 
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Originally Posted by Ram Trucks
Then these machines should be designed better. I mean something thats the size of a small house should not be effected by where some measly 200 lb humans sit.
You're complaining about the design of something the size of a small house that can safely propel 200 people 5 miles in the air at 500 mph in order to make a 2500 mile journey in 5 hours? Glad you're not my boss
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Old May 5, 2016, 6:31 am
  #42  
 
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Originally Posted by seenitall
Given that this was a 737-900, my guess is that there was a mistake in loading the cargo holds -- and stuff that was supposed to be put in the back hold was put into the front hold. As a result, they had a choice: either wait while cargo was taken out of the front hold and put into the back one, or tell the PAX that they had to move back. Given that doing the first choice would cost UA time and money, you can guess which option they chose.
The thing with that though, is with how tail tipping prone the 739 is, it's standard procedure to load the majority of weight into the front. Because when it reaches its destination, the tanks are almost empty, and all the pax are getting from the front first...having cargo weight in the back will make it drop real quick.

So I could see it making sense to have pax move back for takeoff to get the balance, but then come back forward for landing to avoid the tail tipping issue.
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Old May 5, 2016, 10:08 am
  #43  
 
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I repeat: What if actual passengers aren't "standard" size. Then what?

Originally Posted by ajGoes
Each time a flight you're on makes a successful takeoff, one of the reasons is that the airplane was loaded with correct attention to weight and balance. Each standard passenger counts as about 170 lbs. in the calculation. The weight affects the balance differently depending on its distance from the center of lift, which is somewhere around the wing. The weight of, say, twenty standard passengers thirty feet behind the wing could make the difference between a takeoff and a crash at the end of the runway.
Originally Posted by Xyzzy
Sure -- but bags count fr weight too, One could easily have added baggage to the quoted list. In this case...
Apparently I was unclear up post, but how do they calculate weight if the passengers are not "standard...170 lbs".

What if the passengers are e.g. a large professional football players? What if they were a gaggle of small choir boys?

Do the airlines personnel look at the real situation (not standard size) and change the weight calculation or do they blindly calculate 170lbs/person?
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Old May 5, 2016, 10:38 am
  #44  
 
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Originally Posted by Bear4Asian
Apparently I was unclear up post, but how do they calculate weight if the passengers are not "standard...170 lbs".

What if the passengers are e.g. a large professional football players? What if they were a gaggle of small choir boys?

Do the airlines personnel look at the real situation (not standard size) and change the weight calculation or do they blindly calculate 170lbs/person?
Someone may be able to search for it and repost but IIRC there was something like a school trip of 45-50 kids. I don't think it caused any issues but pilot/crew/someone noticed and things has to be adjusted because each kid would have been 75+ pounds lighter than the average.
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Old May 5, 2016, 10:44 am
  #45  
 
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Originally Posted by JBord
You didn't need to, I assumed that and addressed it in my response.

The surprise here is not that there were w&b issues, but that a flight from BOS-SFO was only half full.
You can only fire your customers for so long before these things happen.
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