Curious if anyone ever uses this site for weight and balance. Honestly I dont do WB often and betting most dont given you generally have a good idea as to what your aircraft can or cannot do with the given weight and conditions pending.

I know personally, computing WB is not one of my favorite things to do.

Curious what you think about this site. You can enter your own aircraft and do the calculations. It pretty much works out exactly with what I come up with when doing it the long way.

http://home.roadrunner.com/~trumpetb/alph/

AKT

I use Appventive Weight and Balance Calculator for Android and have it on my phone. Having it right there makes it really easy to do on the fly. The only problems I've had so far are when people understate their weight, and figuring out my fuel burn. The graph also doesn't line up perfectly with the Owner's Manual for light and aft, but I am just concientious of that and its fine.

Funny, I just found the 180 version of that site last night. Seems like it works pretty well.

I made one in excel for my PA-22, it has worked great. Makes it easy, and any time I'm not sure we weigh everything and start punching numbers.

aktahoe1 wrote:Curious if anyone ever uses this site for weight and balance. Honestly I dont do WB often and betting most dont given you generally have a good idea as to what your aircraft can or cannot do with the given weight and conditions pending.

I know personally, computing WB is not one of my favorite things to do.

Curious what you think about this site. You can enter your own aircraft and do the calculations. It pretty much works out exactly with what I come up with when doing it the long way.

http://home.roadrunner.com/~trumpetb/alph/

AKT

Yes I used it alot when I did the Pponk conversion.

Kevin, that is the same one I use for my plane. I saved it on my blackberry so I can use it anytime even when I don't have service. I don't use it every flight but I did last week before we took off from California to Washigton with 175lbs in the back.

One of these calculators is a great idea unless you fly your airplane almost every day, commonly with loads. If that's the case, it's pretty easy to develop a set of loadings, and you'll know pretty much where stuff has to go to make it work.

But, if you AREN'T flying that frequently, and/or your loads vary a lot, I'd strongly suggest a W/B calculator to help out a bit.

Math is NOT my strong suit. I can calculate W/B, but it takes me a little longer than it really should.

MTV

As a C-130 Loadmaster I'm pretty familiar with weight and balance. I don't need a weight and balance calculator to safely load my plane, it's just fun to use sometimes to see exactly where my CG is. You would actually have to try pretty damn hard to get the 170 out of limits. With my wife and I aboard and full fuel I could put 275lbs in the baggage compartment and still be in limits. But the max weight back there is 120lbs anyways... So pretty hard to get the CG out of limits. As long as I have my load distributed evenly and I'm below 2200lbs gross weight I'm pretty much good to go.

I've used spreadsheets in the past and even made one up for the Maule, but now I exclusively use WnB Pro on my iPad. Excel can be pretty powerful and I've even used it to calculate TOLD based on the W&B, field conditions, and aircraft tab data...an awesome tool!

Of course, it only works if you have the data, and garbage in = garbage out

robw56 wrote:As a C-130 Loadmaster I'm pretty familiar with weight and balance. I don't need a weight and balance calculator to safely load my plane, it's just fun to use sometimes to see exactly where my CG is. You would actually have to try pretty damn hard to get the 170 out of limits. With my wife and I aboard and full fuel I could put 275lbs in the baggage compartment and still be in limits. But the max weight back there is 120lbs anyways... So pretty hard to get the CG out of limits. As long as I have my load distributed evenly and I'm below 2200lbs gross weight I'm pretty much good to go.

I gotta share this story if you don't mind.......

We had this one driver for one of our race rigs one time that claimed to be "one of the best Loadmasters for FedEx in Indy" one time (his quote, not mine). Well, he dropped off his rig at this trailer company near Cleveland Ohio for some repairs on the upper deck inside the trailer. He just dropped the trailer and left while the crew at the trailer company unloaded the equipment inside the trailer so they can perform their duties (whatever repair needed done). Anyway, a few days later, "Super Ex-Loadmaster" (AKA, Super Trucker) comes back to the trailer company to pick up his repaired trailer. But, the crew at the trailer company did not reload the equipment into the trailer (for liability reasons). Well, "Super Ex-Loadmaster" (AKA, Super Trucker) had no idea how the trailer should be loaded (apparently he was never involved with the load process of the upper deck). So he had to call the race team manager to get instructions and load diagram of how everything had to be loaded. Um yeah...... some kind of "Loadmaster this guy claimed to be!

Does the full version of Appventive W&B allow skewed CG envelopes? I've tried the free version on my Android and can't get the CG envelope to match the chart in my 170 owner's manual

What's a skewed CG envelope? I tried the free version and didn't like it. I have the paid version. Works exactly as you'd expect.

robw56 wrote:As a C-130 Loadmaster I'm pretty familiar with weight and balance. I don't need a weight and balance calculator to safely load my plane, it's just fun to use sometimes to see exactly where my CG is. You would actually have to try pretty damn hard to get the 170 out of limits. With my wife and I aboard and full fuel I could put 275lbs in the baggage compartment and still be in limits. But the max weight back there is 120lbs anyways... So pretty hard to get the CG out of limits. As long as I have my load distributed evenly and I'm below 2200lbs gross weight I'm pretty much good to go.

Ya you young-ins are skinny wait'll you get older and plump like us old farts (cept Pops) I'm thinkin I'm gonna need a 206 to haul the wives bag around

BeeMan wrote:Does the full version of Appventive W&B allow skewed CG envelopes? I've tried the free version on my Android and can't get the CG envelope to match the chart in my 170 owner's manual

I don't know, I have the free version, I just remember where the line is for light and aft. Usually I only have any problem being on the heavy side anyway.

Seems there's a very similar thread called CG Finder for iPhone. I just posted over there about Aviation W&B by RoyApplications. So far I like it the best of several I've tried.

-DP

I just set up something on weightandbalance.com. It's free. I'd been getting lazy about doing W&B's, especially since the POH chart is small and hard to read/calculate. I was wondering why I was having a hard time no landing flat after taking the rear seat and extra baggage items out to lighten the load. I ran the calc online and saw I was way too far forward on CG when the fuel was low. This will make it a cinch to do future W&B calcs and less error prone.

Aero balance on the iPad is my choice.


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I use FlightPrep or all my moving sectionals, low en-route, approach plates, planning, and weight and balance, plus so much more!

I'm using the weight & balance app by Yeno for Android. It is easy to use, free, and always with me if I have my phone. I just had a BFR last week and my CFI was satisfied when I showed him the app. Most flights are pretty much the same but if something changes (more pax, less fuel, heavy bags), it is easy to run the numbers and know where you stand instead of just assuming it is OK.