View Full Version : Load sheet.... handheld printer
Can anyone please point me in the correct direction to find a handheld battery powered a/c loadsheet printer? I've used electronic computer loadsheets for years. I've seen those credit card printers they have at the cafe tables especially in France. Someone once told me you get something similar and program any major jet airliner into it for entering pax/baggage data and getting out a load & trim sheet
Thanks for any help.
john_tullamarine
4th Mar 2010, 04:40
If you have room to use a laptop then you room to use a small portable printer. Plenty of those in the marketplace.
LeadSled
4th Mar 2010, 04:50
Folks,
Canon have several very small battery powered A4 inkjet printers, just the ticket for something like this, I used to use one for printing Wx and NOTAMS.
Tootle pip!!
Capt Claret
4th Mar 2010, 06:15
In our ops we use a PDA and a battery powered printer about the size of an EFTPOS (credit card) swipe machine.
The load sheet looks all the world like a supermarket receipt but has all the goods.
I don't recall the makes but will check next week.
catiamonkey
4th Mar 2010, 06:35
One of these? mobile printers, portable printers, wireless - Seiko Instruments (http://sii-thermalprinters.com/thermal-printers/mobile-printers.aspx)
welliewanger
4th Mar 2010, 13:01
We use the Canon iP100. It's a normal A4 printer with a battery which lasts about a month or two (as does the black cartridge) It's got a cubby hole which we store it in constantly charging. When we need it it's ready to go.
It's small enough to use on the FD or can be moved into the cabin with a laptop if necessary.
Captain Claret: this sounds like what I'm after; not an A4 size printer. It's something a dispatcher could bring onto the a/c and complete the loadsheet on site as data is finalised. It could also be quickly re-printed as last minute data changed. So much quicker than hand writtgen load-sheets. Please follow it up for me.
many thanks,
Capn Bloggs
10th Mar 2010, 00:42
Rat,
Claret must be under a tree having a glass. This is the printer he is referring to:
Zebra Cameo 2 Barcode Printer (http://www.nationalbarcode.com/zebra/Zebra%20Cameo%202.htm)
Pretty simple and reliable. We use the IR method to send the print job from our PDA. The PDA has a proprietary loadsheet program in it.
Capt Claret
10th Mar 2010, 08:12
Nah Bloggs, hiding on the flight deck, ferreting out the info.
The PDA is running Windows Mobile, and as Bloggs intimated, the printer is from Zebra Technologies Corporation in the USA. The printer label with the corporations address was worn and unreadable.
Denti
10th Mar 2010, 08:19
We just use the ACARS printer, saves another gadget on the flightdeck and we have to enter the figures into the ACARS journeylog application anyway. The newfangled Class III EFB is supposed to interface directly with ACARS so the loadsheet and performance figures will be transferred directly into it from the EFB, no more manual data entry.
RAT 5
10th Mar 2010, 10:14
Thanks Bloggs & Claret. Enjoy the glass. What I was hoping to find was a single machine for entering the data and printing. I had a senior moment when I thought I remembered something like a Jeppesson Nav computer, which could hold loadsheet data for any a/c. You would enter the data in the relevant fields; it would calculate the trim etc and print out a load sheet, a smaller version of the common A4 one. Am I dreaming, or is this another 'could have been a millionaire' moment? You suggest first a PDA, which we don't have, and perhaps neither does the agent unless our airline buys it for them, and then also a printer. The one shop stop item is what I'm after.