Loadsheet Questions

[TheSidestickPilot]

Dear colleagues,

I was looking for a proper explanation of this around the forum, but I couldn’t find one. My question is related to the loadsheet and more specifically, why some loadsheets have multiple destination fields? I never really needed them in my career so far and I see no point in doing this, as you’ll need to calculate the weight and balance for the next leg anyway.

My second question is about the transit passenger and load fields. When would we need that? I guess, there is a good explanation and these fields are useful for certain types of operations (otherwise they wouldn’t be there), but we never had such loadsheet forms in my company and I couldn’t find any good explanation with examples anywhere.

Guys, if you can help me with this, I’ll really appreciate it.

Best Regards!

[FOUR REDS]

Dear colleagues,

I was looking for a proper explanation of this around the forum, but I couldn’t find one. My question is related to the loadsheet and more specifically, why some loadsheets have multiple destination fields? I never really needed them in my career so far and I see no point in doing this, as you’ll need to calculate the weight and balance for the next leg anyway.

My second question is about the transit passenger and load fields. When would we need that? I guess, there is a good explanation and these fields are useful for certain types of operations (otherwise they wouldn’t be there), but we never had such loadsheet forms in my company and I couldn’t find any good explanation with examples anywhere.

Guys, if you can help me with this, I’ll really appreciate it.

Best Regards!

Hello Sidestick pilot,
Before I became an airline pilot I was as a despatcher, on the continent, in the period 1966-1980.
Operations of particularly longhaul flights has significantly changed since then.
Like Gatwick-Lisbon-Las Palmas-Bathurst-Freetown (1967) or UK-Holland-Athens-Karachi-Delhi-Hong Kong (70s). As you say it is not necessary for flight crew to know the exact breakdown of pax/bags/cargo and weight. But this info, per destination, was necessary for handling staff at onward stations, fully broken down into Ad/Ch/Inf and B/C/M and division of loads in cabins as well as the holds. On departure an IATA-formatted loadmessage was sent to ALL onward stations, enabling them to prepare a fairly quick turnaround, whilst disregarding their inbound load and adding their checked-in numbers, again per destination, to the individual fields on the loadsheet. This facilitated load and fuel planning in advance. You can imagine that holds used to be loaded per destination, if at all possible. This avoids having to unload/load cargo and baggage to get to your airport's intended load.

I shall shortly try if I can lay my hands on a sample sheet.. In the meantime I hope this helps somewhat!!
Regards,
Four Reds Arie​​​​​​

ps I am out off the flying game for 17 years and a bit rusty

[TheSidestickPilot]

Hello Sidestick pilot,
Before I became an airline pilot I was as a despatcher, on the continent, in the period 1966-1980.
Operations of particularly longhaul flights has significantly changed since then.
Like Gatwick-Lisbon-Las Palmas-Bathurst-Freetown (1967) or UK-Holland-Athens-Karachi-Delhi-Hong Kong (70s). As you say it is not necessary for flight crew to know the exact breakdown of pax/bags/cargo and weight. But this info, per destination, was necessary for handling staff at onward stations, fully broken down into Ad/Ch/Inf and B/C/M and division of loads in cabins as well as the holds. On departure an IATA-formatted loadmessage was sent to ALL onward stations, enabling them to prepare a fairly quick turnaround, whilst disregarding their inbound load and adding their checked-in numbers, again per destination, to the individual fields on the loadsheet. This facilitated load and fuel planning in advance. You can imagine that holds used to be loaded per destination, if at all possible. This avoids having to unload/load cargo and baggage to get to your airport's intended load.

I shall shortly try if I can lay my hands on a sample sheet.. In the meantime I hope this helps somewhat!!
Regards,
Four Reds Arie​​​​​​

ps I am out off the flying game for 17 years and a bit rustyDear Four Reds Arie,

Thank you so much for your kind reply and what an impressive aviation career!

Two more questions, if I may ask. In what cases do we include transit passengers/loads to our sheet and when do we need the 'cabin bags' fields of a load sheet?

If I understand correctly, all the baggage in the cabin that is not included to the passenger weight is supposed to be entered as 'cabin bags' but I can not imagine situation, where this would be necessary. In my airline, if a passenger has a piece of cabin luggage that is too big, it goes in the cargo holds and is included to the weight of the rest of the baggage.

Once again, thank you for your help. I really appreciate your time!

Kind Regards,
SP