Data entry REAR-END SNAFU: Weighty ballsup leads to plane take-off flap

The Pendolino trains (Pendolini?) seem to have it. (Sensors attached to the suspension system, I mean.) I have - at least once - been on a train where the driver has refused to continue because one car (out of nine at the time) was overloaded. The train manager informed me that there was no point in him even trying as the software would apply the brakes almost immediately should he attempt to move the train in an 'unsafe' configuration.

My point is that if they can apply it to a nineteenth century form of transport why not the following century too?

tare weight...

A pilot had told me that is what they actually do (strain gauge on wheels) - at least for commuter planes. In the USA I have had to "move to balance the plane" more than once, so I imagine the weight of the plane is not an unknown parameter!!!

Must be something else going on...

P.

I'm stunned they're not already doing this.

It was first introduced on the Boeing 707. Airbus also have a similar system.

I'm told it's not that useful on account of wind blowing over some large aerofoil surfaces attached to the fuselage...

Airbus aircraft can measure the performance in flight and determine aircraft loading that way.

Vic.

"In fact this is so important to get right, I'm stunned they're not already doing this." In that industry there always has to be a big accident before anything will change.

Pretty sure I read about strain sensors in the landing gear to measure weight 30 years ago in a Richard Scarry book.

Now, I'll concede that it probably wasn't the last word in aeronautical textbooks, but one assumes he did some research!

All systems go for take-off

Pilots and crews are busy enough in the final few minutes before takeoff. You are talking about adding another technical check at that busy time.

I would rather they do that check before they trundle down the runway and find themselves up shit creek during take-off. It shouldn't be an overly onerous or time consuming check; probably just checking whether the "out of kilter" light is red or green. It's not like we are asking pilots to do something pointless. And lives are at stake, including the pilots' own.

If there is a problem detected what should they do? You need more procedures and to determine how to correct the weight distribution and the co-operation of the passengers.

This is the sort of thing that the plane's computer should do. Check the loading. Do nothing if it's within optimal operating parameters. Alert the crew if it's sub-optimal, so that they are forewarned and can decide whether other conditions (bad weather etc.) make it necessary cancel the take-off. And refuse the allow the plane to fly, whatever the crew might think, if it's so badly ourt of balance that attempting take-off is likely to be disastrous.

So the flight crew would get an orange light maybe one flight in twenty, and a red light once in a blue moon, and air travel would become slightly safer. What to tell the passengers if it's a red light? That the plane is unable to fly because of a red light that has to be investigated. If the problem is in the passenger distribution, that should be obvious to the flight attendants once they are told to look. I expect more often, it's in the cargo hold.

Not having any instrumentation so the problem can't be detected until the plane is halfway down the runway, is crazy. That may well be too late. One of these days, just when the pilot needs more thrust than usual, there will be an engine failure. Most disasters happen because too many things go wrong at once, not because just one thing fails.

If only they were carrying hundreds of tonnes of some sort of liquid that could be pumped into tanks in different parts of the aircraft to rebalance the weight.

Irony?

The obvious problem with redistributing the fuel prior to take-off, is that for a flight destination close to the plane's maximum range, the tanks will all be close to full. Take-off and climbing to cruising altitude uses a significant fraction of the plane's fuel, after which optimally balancing the plane during the rest of the flight is part of normal operations.

And of course, you would need to have instrumentation on the plane's undercarriage to detect the loading problem. Halfway down the runway is too late to rebalance the fuel load.

re: hundreds of tonnes of some sort of liquid

They dispose of much of that liquid before they arrive at their destination, and landing is a somewhat delicate procedure too.

Does it really matter who shot it down?

It was obviously a mistake, whoever did it. And there were no dreadful consequences when the USA accidentally shot down an Iranian passenger flight. I suppose we could politely ask everyone who might have done it to issue a conditional apology without admitting responsibility? It's funny how the media always seem to concentrate on some trivial aspect of a serious situation, like an amateur beheading, for example.