DPLAN

[getjetsetgo]

hey guys and gals.
heres another one of my load control questions. how popular is EDS's Dplan system. does anyone have an idea as to who all uses the system. outside of UK gha's and VS CLP i haven't heard much about it. like swissport in the UK uses it for all the flights they handle. but swissport in germany uses AxsControl for load planning for the flights handled in germany. AxsControl and Dplan are both EDS products. another question does anyone who wat system does air new zealand use for load control. LH res is used for passenger processing. i have access to lh systems where i work and i can see their flights in the system but they are not hosted in LH WAB, which is the part of LHres used for load control by just about most carriers that are hosted in LH res. one more question. lol. wat about etihad. wat provider they use for passenger handling and weight and balance. (if your wondering im just fascinated with EDP systems)

[plans123]

EDS? The same EDS that brought you numerous government IT projects that were late, over cost and never really worked............

The words touch, don't, stick, long ,sh*tty spring to mind. :}

But I have no idea. :ok:

[jetsgo]

or LIBRA is used by some of the aviance alliance partners in the UK and Ghana, but only for airlines who don't have their own W&B balance system. It may be used in Israel and Hungry too, but i'm not 100% sure.

[urdy gurdy]

D-plan is ok. you can teach a monkey to use it in a day, although they might not understand exactly the backround of W&B. So you guys should have no problems learning to use it.

[Blue-Shamrock 89]

urdy gurdy is spot on, it is load control for idiots and takes away what skill is left in the art of weight and balance.
Companies love it for that reason and will call it technology, but then 7 year olds nowadays are very technologically minded and you would'nt want them trimming and producing a load sheet on a 777-300 would you ?

Once upon a time there was definite to skill to being a load controller / dispatcher / weight & balance officer etc but nowadyas companies want to pull people from with no concept from check-in, colleges, off the street and throw them in as Turnround co-ordinators working at aircraft side and delivering a load sheet produced in Bangkok by god knows who and if that is not the case then D-PLAN is the answer, sit a 18 year old check-in agent down show them the screen, drag and drop stuff around and as long it doesn't go red then hey-ho a load sheet is ready to print, just hope the Captain doesn't need anything explaining.

Finally if the system goes down get the captain to do a manual or do his own W&B on his laptop and put the delay down to system failure.

God forbid asking the Turnround co-ordinator to do a manual !

Of course there are some places where old values still remain like India and the DGCA

[Magic Buff]

I have actually trained people on this system frequently and I can assure you that both Swissport and Aviance insist that before any staff member would be given a login code for this system it is required that they first understand all the principals of Manual Weight and Balance, actually to an inexperienced loadcontroller there are many potentials for Mr cockup unless you have been thoroughly trained on it, and cockups do occur to those who have been given a twenty min run through, so I would reccomend that this is not policy, yes it is simple on the surface, but I have known many to make mistakes who are not experienced.

[CaptJane]

I know of two ground handling companies and one airline in Israel that use LoadMaster software for weight and balance.

[TheMaskedDispatcher]

Havn't had the pleasure of new dplan but having lost track of the number of W+B systems i have learnt i'm sure the flying public would be much happier if the safety-critical software involved in getting them off the ground rather than into the grass at the end wasnt originally used to plan the trim on the Ark. Some systems are indeed more intuative than others, i think we'd all agree that a nice simple windows system is probably easier to train people in AFTER they've been shown the crucial principles MANUALLY. All time fave? Either Sabre/SteadyState or Delta's new pointy-clicky thing . .least fave? OLD Dplan . . need edn2 Loadsheet? let me stoke the boiler a bit more Sir . . .

TMD

[KiloMIke]

Emirates use a version of Axis control that they call MACS.

Etihad use RTB from Amadeus.

I think NZ use a very old version of RTZ but not sure if has been updated.

Hope this helps!

[Trabbi]

Hello,

yeah, EDS is the great big brother from Zurich - we use their loadcontrol Atraxis and their intranet-service (very unstable, like EDS).
The big difference between D-Plan and Atraxis is that DPLAN is a stand alone weight and balance program where you put in all the figures you need for a loadsheet. Atraxis is a typical DCS system (check-in figures go right into the loadsheet system, so you have an in-time update).
I started loadcontroling when a hand made sheet was standard, up to now I have learned so many different systems is is horrible to keep the overview on all. That is the thing when you work for a handling agent. Every airline wants you to use their own thingy.
What do we do? Accept it. But it really keeps one busy with the keystrokes you have to remember in any of those systems and not to mix them up.
My collection of quick references fill a library. It's a mess. Working parallel for AZ (Arco), IB (Reciber), KL (Codeco), OA (Hermes), LX (Atraxis), DL (Deltamatic/Alis), NW (now gone), AY (ACE/Fido, now moving to Altea), BA (Babs/RTB), AF (Gaetan), and coming soon, Flybe's Shares :bored:

Greets,

Trabbi (Swissport Germany)

[STN Ramp Rat]

Finnair are already in Amadeus Altea. Once you have used this system you will not want to use anything else.

[Out Of Trim]

D-plan / Libra is just fine as a helpful tool to an experienced Load Controller.

It offers a straight-forward, fast and visually helpful indication of weight and balance in real time. It is great in that you do not have to learn any stupid entries like Codeco etc.

If you want to enter the fuel figures for instance; you just go to the fuel page, by clicking on the fuel button.

OK, you can teach just about anyone to use it. But, it does help if you have some Load Control experience before getting your hands on it. IE. Being aware of what you can load in a particular hold of any type of aircraft and why you would load it it in a particular way.

You should not be using it, if you can't go to using a manual Load Sheet as back-up!

So used by properly trained staff; it is a joy to use and helps you to provide an optimum trim for efficient and safe flight.

Over the years, I've used many of the different systems and I've observed that most people are happiest with the system they first used and got to know extremely well. D-plan Libra is no different, and if you had never used anything else but Libra and then were trained to use KLM's Codeco for example, you would not believe how outdated and backward a step it would seem to have to spend a week trying to get to grips with such a rubbish system.

Although, many old hands, just love that old system! :eek:

[lowflyer99]

The W&B tool of the axsControl will be enhanced with a GUI. The passenger handling (check-in, boarding etc.) has been guified since a long time. And now finally, the loadcontrol solution will become a GUI! This really makes a difference. No kryptic entries anymore :O

[Capt Wannabe]

HP are indeed touting a GUI development for Axs. Not quite sure why they think that's a good idea, but we'll see :ugh: