Originally Posted by
rlsbutler
Well yes really.
We are talking about a check figure not primary planning information. A crew would be ill advised to take a reading in the hurly-burley you have in mind or, having taken such a reading, would be free to discard it.
We have been told of the ground installation at Bogota. I expect to be told that it is/was positioned somewhere along a long open taxiway.
A built-in system can be read at whatever point the crew finds the least turbulence.
I would be amazed if it was difficult or expensive for an aircraft maker to model the ground effect of surface wind on a free standing airframe.
I wait for Ex Cargo Clown #27 or Tower Dog #28 to tell us whether surface wind was even considered in using the installations they know of.
It was on a static aircraft and pretty sheltered, so was usually +/- 0.1%MAC off the loadsheet. As the pallets were loaded you could pretty much second guess if there was a gross error, as you'd know just how much it should change by.