Our compartment 5 "bulk pit" can hold in excess of 120 bags, how's that for a workout?

 

You use bulk loading and not ULD??? :blink: :blink:

I don't think I've ever seen a bulk loaded T7. I'd imaging that's quite the workout. Out of interest, why bulk-loading? Do yee fly to destinations without the capability to load/unload ULDs?

 

Ró.

Oh no, we primarily use ULD containers for bags. However, here at ORD where our weather can create a mass amount of delays, we often find ourselves receiving bags at the last minute that can no longer be added to the containers.

Oh no, we primarily use ULD containers for bags. However, here at ORD where our weather can create a mass amount of delays, we often find ourselves receiving bags at the last minute that can no longer be added to the containers.

 

Don't I know it, always the last minute bag just as you're about to push, or even during... :Sigh:

 

Ró.

Haha, I'm sure I contribute to the hectic time during pushback when I send three W&B acars revisions as the bulk pit bag count keeps rising...

Haha, I'm sure I contribute to the hectic time during pushback when I send three W&B acars revisions as the bulk pit bag count keeps rising...

 

We're supposed to be getting new EFB's soon, so we should soon be able to do that ourselves, about time too...

If there's one thing I hate it's turning and burning on a taxiway waiting for performance data to come through on ACARS....

 

Ró.

Wow that's interesting, I'm not sure what the official SOP is, but in four years of load control, I have never sent the w&b post push-back. In fact, I'm willing to bet the pilots won't even allow pushback to occur until performance data has come through and been accepted. And when you talk about the new EFB's, do you mean you'll calculate your TO CG% and TOW all from the EFB? In that case, I'd imagine you would still need somebody to provide the data concerning aircraft weight distribution...

Wow that's interesting, I'm not sure what the official SOP is, but in four years of load control, I have never sent the w&b post push-back. In fact, I'm willing to bet the pilots won't even allow pushback to occur until performance data has come through and been accepted. And when you talk about the new EFB's, do you mean you'll calculate your TO CG% and TOW all from the EFB? In that case, I'd imagine you would still need somebody to provide the data concerning aircraft weight distribution...

 

No, on occasion, we'll just start taxi out towards runway and hold at an intermediate point while our figures come in, of course we prefer to have that all done at the gate though. Perhaps it's just a company SOP thing.

 

With regards the EFB, that's what I'm lead to believe, it's been introduced at our Cork, Gatwick and Belfast bases, not due to be implemented here at the Dublin base till all crew have done the course on using it first. I haven't done mine yet, but I'd imagine that we still get the original print out of weight distribution, and then we'll plonk those into our in house performance calculator for CoG, Trim and takeoff data. If there is a last minute change I'd imagine either the rampie or the ops agent would in future radio over to us "An extra 100kg in Cargo 4", or even just the new W&B firgures, but not the performance one's and we'd update our EFB's and get our own perrmance figures. Being honest, I'm not entirely sure how it will work, or if it'll be much faster than with ACARS, but sure we'll see...

 

Rónán O Cadhain.

 

EDIT:

 

You seem to be the person to ask here Robert as you seem to be familier with working the other end of the ACARS system, but when I'm in my MCDU, and I request either "Runway Data" or "Weight Manifest", does an actual person on the other side have to send that back to me, or do you guys save that data on a central computer, and then that computer send it back to me when I ask for it? If you don't know that's fine...

 

Ró.

Edited July 14, 201213 yr by Rónán O Cadhain

Ro, in regards to your question, I'm not entirely sure, but a good guess would be that the MCDU sends a command to a central computer which then interprets it and sends you back the request. As far as I'm concerned, I have no way of "communicating" with the MCDU/FMS in that fashion. In other words, I have no system where I can "receive" commands from the FMS, or when pilots request certain information, etc. My communication exists to the extent that I uplink my W&B manifest to the aircraft, which is then confirmed with a "GOOD END" message. This may indeed also upload the weight distribution for the aircraft into the MCDU as well. Afterward, I know when the captain has accepted the load sheet because i get a letter "A" next to the manifest status icon (accepted). But as we all know, different airlines = different SOP's, so I wouldn't be surprised if your airline runs things a bit differently. Even when I did w&b for the same airline, but, 767F aircraft, the systems differed dramatically.

 

The EFB seems like an interesting idea, but as you mentioned, I don't see it significantly cutting down the work load. I would think, since the ops agent is already dealing with the weight distribution, it doesn't take a whole lot of time to figure out the %CG and TOW.

Yes, I get your point, thanks for that. Looks like it probably is a central system then, where you send your data and I automatically retrieve it upon request.

 

Thanks,

Ró.