Guys,
I have followed your discussions with interest and I would say that in my experience I would not recommend the use of adjusted weight index system over other methods (tabular or dropline) as I personally feel that any benifits are out weighed by the negatives.
The essence of the Adjusted Weight Index Loading System (AWIS) is that balance units (expressed to one decimal place), are added to each element of weight on the Load Manifest, to give adjusted weights.
When these adjusted weights are summated, they provide both an aircraft weight, indicated by the digits to the left of the decimal point, and the Centre of Gravity (C.G.) value, indicated by the right hand digits.
Balance Units are increments of moment about a reference datum, and at take-off they correspond closely to Mean Aerodynamic Chord (M.A.C.).
The datum must be selected and is normally a typical take-off weight with a lever arm located at the aircraft Centre of Gravity datum.
An example Datum for a B767-200 would be :-
320000.0 lb. 24.0 % M.A.C.
Balance units will correspond exactly to % M.A.C. at the above datum weight.
HOWEVER, At other take-off weights the degree of accuracy decreases the further away the actual take-off weight is from the datum take-off weight.
[FONT=LotusLineDraw][FONT=Arial][COLOR=#000000]If you need any further assistance with this or other W&B problems, please feel free to contact me by PM.