I am interested to know what is the normal pax/cargo load for short flights (less then 300nm)?Thanks

Moshe,depends on the airline. Someone like Easyjet would have a full flight, mixed with Business and Leisure passenegers - which affects the amount of baggage carried.A charter holiday airline operating a longer sector would be expected to have a full flight, along with a full baggage load.When I say Full Baggage Load, I mean 1 bag per pax - not full holds loaded.You can set the load planner up for this quite easily.Pax = Full.Baggage = 2000 Kgs Aft Hold.

Thanks for the reply, So about 50245kg ZFW is right? (talking about 737-700)

Sounds okay to me.

Pax = Full.Baggage = 2000 Kgs Aft Hold.Hi Mark,This brings up a question I had not thought of before...In the load manager I have been balancing the load between the two holds. Is the aft hold normally loaded first? Would the aft hold normally be filled before loading the fore hold?I wonder if it makes any difference in the sim how the loads are distributed or is it just the overall weight.

Hi Mike,there are varying standard loading procedures between different airlines.Most 737's that I have seen use the following:All Baggage in the back.Cargo in the front.Overspill Baggage in the front.This applies to all 737's from the -300 to the -800.The -800 has a massive hold, and can accomodate well over 200 large bags in it. Different aircraft/airlines operate different policies, but most Boeing Aircraft fly better with an aft c.g.I have seen a 757 with 300 bags loaded in the back and nothing in the front and being perfectly fine C.G. wise. On the other hand I have seen a 767 with 10000Kgs of freight in the front and nothing in the back. Well out of the trim limits, so had to put on 40000Kgs of fuel to balance the aircraft out.I don't think it affects MS much unless you have access to the proprietary data from Boeing and an airline that would help you to accurately model the weight and balance.

Just a small question...Should I not touch the FS payload settings after using load manager? Another thing I've noticed is that there's no separate load stations in FS when selecting the 737NG, why's that?

Just use the load manager.It's not worth the while creating separate load stations in FS, unless you know all the W&B engineering data.Mostly this is proprietary data and is not publicly available.