Originally Posted by wanabee777
Regulatory agencies, worldwide, have been remiss in establishing load auditing procedures in order to insure aircraft weight and balance calculations are correct.
Department of Transportation inspectors, using portable scales, conduct random tests on tractor/trailers.
Couldn't the same inspection techniques be applied to aircraft for gross weight and C/G analysis?
Originally Posted by Wunwing
wanabee.
Clearly you have never been involved or have seen a large aircraft being weighed? I'm not sure that the pax would take kindly to being forced to stay on board for the extended process or that the pax that are delayed by it for the rest of the aircraft day would be too impressed either.
Wunwing
No, I've never seen a weight and balance check being conducted on any aircraft, let alone a large one. From your remark, I assume it must be a long and drawn out process.
As an alternative, how about this suggestion?
On a random basis, authorities conduct a load audit after the aircraft blocks in at destination.
I'm not saying weighing the aircraft with scales would be necessary. Simply conduct a passenger count during deplaning along with a cargo weight check for each bin. The results would be compared to the airline's AWABS paperwork for that flight.
Is that reasonable?