Hey all,

 

Is there a preferred method to cargo loading? To keep the math simple, if I have 10,000 lbs of cargo, do you just put 5,000 in each hold, or is there a particular ratio that you should use.

 

Thanks!

 

Mike

I use TOPCAT. I can only tell you off hand, that with 1914 kgs of passenger cargo, TOPCAT distributes as 917 kgs front, 997 kgs rear.

Give this a peek:

 

http://forums.virtualwestjet.org/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2638

I'll add in here saying that typically cargo will go in the front, luggage in the back. Don't forget to add your crew luggage in the front! (airline specific. IE: Air Berlin has the bags in CPT 1 as extra weight. Lufthansa 737 has it in CPT 3 as part of the DOW). I add 15kg per crew bag. Typical flight crew is 2/3 (2 in the cockpit, 3 in the back). Depending on where you fly, and which airline, you can calculate baggage weight by taking approximately 75-80% total PAX number, then multiplying by 14-16kg. This will give you the weight for CPT3. As a ramp agent, we usually do it the other way, taking the total weight, dividing by the number of bags, and getting the average per bag weight.

It would be great if PMDG could change the loading from front/back to CPT 1,2,3,4. It would making load distributions better and calculating the loadsheet easier. As for taking 10,000lbs cargo, that's a lot more than I've ever seen loaded. The most I've ever put into a 738 was 2000lbs cargo and 4500lbs luggage.

 

(I work at TXL/EDDT as a Ramp Agent with Globe Ground. I work around these aircraft daily having to calculate these figures, and creating the loadsheets... Although most of the time the loadsheet comes over the ACARS system which unfortunately theres no way to implement that into the sim.)

We in KSC, on the other hand, rarely ever have cargo on board. Especially for our 737NG operation, which is almost exclusively charter.

 

Anyway we just try to distribute bags to come as close to company optimum. Thing is, the more weight you move back, the better airplane performs in regard to fuel economy, but it is getting trickier to handle, up to the point of being unsafe to fly. An airline would specify their optimal target CoG, say, 27%. And we would move bags about in loading software so that we arrive as close to 27 as practical.