I'm trying to understand how the PAX 77L should be loaded as far as cargo is concerned.

 

When you select 100% load, certain values get delegated to forward/aft and bulk cargo compartments. However, you can manually enter values that are significantly higher... and then at some point the values turn yellow (but still the airplane has an OK center of gravity)... then only if you go higher, it says "Invalid Entry." What is the logic behind this interface?

 

Moreoever, what I'd really like to know is: say I have XY.Z tonnes of cargo to distribute in the cargo compartments; any rules of thumb on how to do distribute it realistically?

 

Thank you,

Sam Kharey

That is a good question. Even I am not sure the cargo loads should be distributed between aft and fwd section. Right now I keep the ratios same.

I am using PFPX to plan my flights and I am just entering in the planned ZFW figure and the 777 just figures out the rest for me.  Even if you don't have PFPX you can do things this way as well.

I'm not knowledgeable enough to explain, but I suspect checking CG (center of gravity) after loading, if you don't have software that conveniently automatically calculates this for you, is the main clue. You want to have CG optimized to have the plane fly most efficiently, that's the general principal.

 

Real world people whose teams deal with this every day might hopefully chime in with more detail.

 

It's a worthwhile thing to get your head around, for sure. PFPX will give you a number, as will Majestic's Q400 built-in loader, but neither will just give you understanding, and the latter is the fun part.

 

Does PFPX have data for 77L? Does it calculate fuel burn for this aircraft too?

 

Sam Kharey

PFPX cannot tell you how to distribute the baggage and cargo weight with regards to the fwd and aft cargo holds (as well as the bulk cargo) hold. PFPX simply gives you the baggage weight for the amount of pax you have loaded and then you manually put in the amount of cargo weight you want to carry. What I and I think the OP want to know is if you are manually putting in a XX amount of weight into the cargo hold, what guideline is there for weight distribution between the front and rear cargo holds? I know on the NGX I would put 40% of the cargo weight in the fwd hold. Wandering what to do with the 777.

It would be a great thing to know what the ratio from front to back is. I just make sure my CG is within limits and let it go. Not sure if that is proper

I would like to bump this up so maybe Ryan or someone else from pmdg may chime in as I think proper weight distribution is needed for those the want to manually set the under hold cargo load.

 

Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note 2

 

 

Does PFPX have data for 77L? Does it calculate fuel burn for this aircraft too?

 

Sam Kharey

 

PFPX is calculating fuel burn for this aircraft so accuratley that I was seeing arrival fuel loads within 0.1 tonnes (ie 100kg) of the number PFPX gave hours before takeoff.

 

Literally taking the fuel load sheet (which shows how much fuel will be left for every waypoint you fly past) and each waypoint on the way was pretty much exactly the same.

 

This assumes you put in the right zfw and used the weather prediction for upper winds etc.

 

It's insanely accurate. The only time I had a major difference from planned to actual was when the weather feed I was using dropped out and got 'stuck' on old weather for a bit.

 

I'v never used a payware flight planner before, instead preferring to go off known variables such as Airline Scheduled time, own flightplanning using the likes of skyvector.com flightaware, Ausots/NATS etc.

 

PFPX however just does such a good job that it just makes sense to use it. If I can consistently get my fuel usage so accurate down to less than 1 tonne, and in most cases even better than that then I'm pretty impressed.

I am a ramp agent. When the 777s come to YYZ, the front always has the bulk of the cargo pallets. The pallets ar much heavier than the baggage containers and the front hold is bigger thean the rear. Air france and Korean put a crew rest module in the rear hold thus further reducing its capacity. With that logic, the front hold will be heavier loaded than the back hold.

 

on a 737 and a330 the rear is to have the heavier load. the opposite is true for the A320. These are my observations after seeing the load sheets and working on the planes.

 

Hope that helps.

Cheers!

Forgot to mention. When PIA comes to YYZ with their 777LR, they automatically want 90 bags loaded into hold 5 before the rest of the baggage containers are filled....

I am a ramp agent. When the 777s come to YYZ, the front always has the bulk of the cargo pallets. The pallets ar much heavier than the baggage containers and the front hold is bigger thean the rear. Air france and Korean put a crew rest module in the rear hold thus further reducing its capacity. With that logic, the front hold will be heavier loaded than the back hold.

 

on a 737 and a330 the rear is to have the heavier load. the opposite is true for the A320. These are my observations after seeing the load sheets and working on the planes.

 

Hope that helps.

Cheers!

 

Forgot to mention. When PIA comes to YYZ with their 777LR, they automatically want 90 bags loaded into hold 5 before the rest of the baggage containers are filled....

Interesting. Assume hold 5 is the bulk hold?

 

Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note 2

 

 

 

 

Interesting. Assume hold 5 is the bulk hold?

correct

Unsure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but the TOCG will turn yellow just like the weights if you're out of the limit. So if it's still white, you're should be good to go.

I'd love to have a place where we could enter a payload number and it would distribute the cargo as required just like it does with the fuel.

 

That would be perfect!

The captsim 757 has a tool where you can change all of this . You can even pick what seats are empy and full and also manage cargo ...

In the case of a 777 freighter you have a unlimited amount of scenario's when it comes to whats going in the plane as far as PMCs PGAs or even AVEs (search google to know those abbreviations are) once you have the weight's they can be entered in a load planer software and you will end up with a layout of where each piece of cargo can go but the load planer makes the last changes to ensure that the plane its loaded in a safe way . That loadsheet or load plan will be brought up to me in the flightdeck and me and the load planer would review the numbers also....