1895. Effects of External Loads on Onboard Weight and Balance System
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Paper
Abstract
Accurate weight and center of gravity (cg) checks are required for every commercial aircraft flight to insure the certified weight and center of gravity limits of an airplane are not exceeded. The hand manifest and the onboard weight and balance system are two current methods available to accomplish these checks. The hand manifest is the most common method. It determines the airplane weight and cg by adding estimated weights and cg’s of the passengers, cargo, fuel, and operational items to a known empty airplane weight and cg. The onboard weight and balance system automates this task and provides a more accurate weight and cg. It is a computer link with load measuring sensors which can weigh the fully loaded airplane just prior to takeoff in a typical airport environment. The onboard weight and balance system is subject to some uncertainties. These include the load sensing equipment tolerances and external loads. External loads that may be read by the load sensors include effects of wind, ice, rain, snow, and asymmetrical gear loads. The classical method of accounting for uncertainties like these is to place restrictions on the cg range of the certified limits. This paper attempts to account for the uncertainties caused by the external loads and to compare these to typical uncertainties of the hand manifest system. The magnitude of each external load is determined. CG restrictions are developed to account for these external loads and compared to the typical cg restrictions of the more common hand manifest system. The external load effects on a large and small commercial airplane are addressed.
