How do they make sure an aircraft has a safe center of gravity when loading them with luggage and passengers.?

Question

How do they make sure an aircraft has a safe center of gravity when loading them with luggage and passengers.?

Answer 1

Wingflap, as a pilot you have a great deal to learn about weight and balance. Just  about every thing you said is incorrect beginning with the coment about an MD80 being "heavy forward".

Returning to the question. Determining the center of gravity is simply a matter of multiplying the weight of an item to be loaded by its "arm" or distance aft of datum, that it will placed on board. this gives you what is called a "moment". Then you total all the moments and the wieghts, including the empty aircraft weight and moment, and divide the total moment by the total weight. The result will be the center of gravity as mesured in inches aft of the datum. And of course it must fall withing the allowable cg range.

Answer 2

The baggage handlers and ticket sales system use formulas based on the weight, estimated weight, and position in the aircraft of each load item.  All these items are calculated by a designated member of the flight crew and signed off by the Captain.

As always, if anything is wrong, the Captain is responsible.

Answer 3

i have no clue

Answer 4

Each aircraft has different loading zones, and the weight per bag and person is averaged.  

As an example, the MD80 is heavy forward, so the majority of the bags are loaded in the aft, and averaged out at about 35lbs per bag.  

Once the passengers are assigned seats, they are averaged out as well.

Most pilots already know their passenger load, and they use the baggage as ballast.  

If loading the bags within the prescribed zones does not keep the center of gravity within the envelope prescribed, passengers will be moved.  

If this doesn't solve the issues, some bags will be left off of the aircraft until the next flight, but this is rare, comparitively.

Answer 5

First of all it is aircraft design that the center of gravity is in that particular area (let us say the wheel well area) given a + and - tolerance. After cargo loading which the cargo clerk supervises as to where put baggages he has a chart in hand that tells exactly where baggages are to be located at the cargo hold. he will do the computation after cargo loading is finished and if passed his weight and balance chart will present it to the captain, using almost the same chart the pilots check and if is within the specified tolerance affix his signature. He knows if its correct while taxiing and during take-off he will just say next time when we come back he will berate the cargo clerk for adding extra weight say 500kg. But it is really safe because when in notorious airports where cargo is always padded the captain lessesn the load allowed. The only would be problem is when the cargo nets shears and cargo stockpiles on one another, now that would really shift the center of gravity. But that will be seldom to happen. Sometimes shifting passenger seating compensates already for the extra weight and center of gravity is never compromise.

Answer 6

i think there is a scale-like sensor on each of the wheels for the landing gear. there should be a set ratio for the weight in these wheels.