I appreciate this is chiefly a forum for pilots, but perhaps I may ask a question as SLF?
Some time ago I was on a KLM flight LHR-AMS which would normally have been fulfilled by a 737. On this occasion the aircraft was a MD-11, presumably for reasons of positioning.
I noticed that although the pax load (and, I would guess, the fuel load) was very light for a MD-11, a great deal of attention was paid to pax distribution. My question is, how far are C of G issues dependent on actual gross loading? To take an extreme example, if we have a 747 with (say) 50 pax on board, how critical is it that those pax be evenly distributed? I presume that a full load automatically ensures proper pax distribution, though presumably MGW issues then come into play.