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Old 8th Dec 2002, 05:06
  #99 (permalink)  
Ascend Charlie
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Great South East, tired and retired
Posts: 4,399
Received 237 Likes on 110 Posts
Make yer own charts

It is a piece of cake to make your own using Excel or another spreadsheet. The columns are called
Item (or passenger name, as it can be used as a manifest)
Weight
Arm (from flight manual, for pilot / copilot row, middle rear-facing row, rear seat, cargo compartment)
Moment (weight * arm)

And the rows are:
Aircraft basic (or operational) weight
Pilot
Copilot
Centre left
Centre right
Rear left
Rear middle
Rear right
Baggage compartment

Zero fuel weight (sum of all weights above, and the ARM column will be the sum of moments divided by sum of weights, and is your longitudinal cg position.

Below that is the row for your fuel, and its arm

Then comes the final row, the fly-away weight and the final Arm.

You can put in extras to make the weight box turn red if it is over the limits, and other calculations will put a box with the allowable range with the fuel you can carry.
And in an Agusta, this box can bring tears to your eyes - with 4 or 5 pob your range is line-of-sight.

Then you can add a chart to graphically show your cg position. The first task is to define the envelope, so in an area well away from your figures, make a list of the corners of the envelope, usually 5 or 6 points. No reason to include any that fall below your aircraft's empty weight. These become Series one on the chart.

The second series is made by copying the cells with the ZFW weight and Arm, and then the fly-away weight and arm. This should then draw a line on the chart showing how the cg will vary with fuel burnoff.

Don't forget to lock out all the cells except the passenger's name and weight, and the fuel and cargo - otherwise some dill will blot out your arms / moments and wreck the whole show.

Plenty of other stuff can be added, and of course this chart method applies to any aircraft - I have made them for R22, BK117, B206/L, AS 350, EC 120, A109 and S76. Obviously you must cross-check the calculations for various configs against the flight manual examples.

With a little computer skill (and I have as little as anybody) you can make a load sheet / manifest that will get you through a CASA ramp check.
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