Do pilots fly with weights just to hold it down?  

I've been flying a Caravan while using Air Hauler.  When I have nothing in it, I have to use full flaps and feather the prop to help get it down.  My fuel is around 50% full.

When I used to fly HS748 turbo prop freighters doing night freight runs we used to have barrels of water that were used for ballast in the rear of the cabin to ensure the aircraft remained within its centre of gravity limits when not carrying freight.

I sometimes fly empty 747s around (I only fly aircraft with 74- in the name) , they don’t require any ballast or extra weight  despite being almost 200,000kg below their maximum take off weight.

So no, you shouldn’t need to add weight just to make it land properly, unless you’re outside the CofG envelope.

 

1 hour ago, bic said:

Do pilots fly with weights just to hold it down?  

I've been flying a Caravan while using Air Hauler.  When I have nothing in it, I have to use full flaps and feather the prop to help get it down.  My fuel is around 50% full.

I fly the Caravan extensively with FSEconomy (P3D and Xplane) and I don't really find it an issue. I rarely feel the need to use full flaps unless it's a short grass runway.  or extremely heavy. Which Caravan are you using? The HD or EX. The HD needs a mod package available to make it somewhat better. Now in Xplane, it works very well.

Believe it's the EX - steam gauges.  There was a mod for FSX, but it blows up P3D.

If it is Steam gauges it is the HD version. I have the Mod installed in P3DV4.4 with no issues. It's about a necessity.

We often have A320s, A321s and A330s doing 'positioning flights' into and out of Manchester. They never require any ballast and can happily fly around empty, we do have to open the holds and check them when they come in for security purposes to make sure any paperwork which states there is nothing on board matches with the reality. The only thing we do when they go out empty is make sure all the cargo nets are fastened up. Sometimes they ferry empty ULD cans about, but they don't actually weigh very much, so loading isn't a big deal there either.

One thing we do have to consider is how we unload them when they do have cargo on board. We usually offload the rear first to ensure they don't tip onto their tail from having no weight in the front.

Another thing which sometimes crops up on the loading though, is when there is an A320 or A321 which has extended tanks fitted, these protrude back into the rear hold, so if those were loaded up fully, that could possibly have a bearing on CoG, but this is not something which crops up to be honest, since they would only be filled up if it was carrying a lot of passengers and cargo, in which case the problem kind of solves itself since most of the cargo would then be pretty much put in the forward hold out of necessity. We actually managed to get 190 bags onto one of those with large extended range tanks the other day, which required some very meticulous cargo stacking lol.

Edited January 19, 20197 yr by Chock

5 hours ago, Chock said:

We actually managed to get 190 bags onto one of those with large extended range tanks the other day, which required some very meticulous cargo stacking lol.

Reminds me of when I took an ERJ135 from KEWR to KSRQ.  They didn't plan on a full flight; consequently, they asked for volunteers stating something to the effect of we  could not make the flight due to the distance and something about expecting more kids to be on the plane than adults.   No one volunteered, so they took bags off.  Mine was one of the lucky ones, which arrived the next day.