Aircraft Weight and Balance

by Jason Schappert

Aircraft Weight and Balance is a tough subject. Most of this content is actually pulled right from my Online Ground School. You’re going to learn how to calculate a weight and balance using my exclusive form and how it affects aircraft performance. Take some time and work through the videos below you’ll be really glad that you did.



Weight and Balance Quiz, Procedures, and Tips

Remember: Weight x Arm = Moment
and… 1 gallon of fuel = 6lbs

Quiz:

Basic Empty Weight = 1750lbs
Arm = 39
Moment = 67,375
Passengers = 350lbs
Passenger Arm = 37
Baggage (Place On Rear Seat) = 25lbs
Fuel = 40 gallons (DON’T FORGET TO CONVERT TO LBS)
Fuel Arm = 48.0
Start Taxi and Runup = -3 gallons
Fuel Burn = -20 gallons

Below Are The Image’s You’ll Need (Click To Enlarge)

Aircraft Weight and Balance Center Of Gravity Limits Loading Arrangements

See if you can figure it out…

Now Check Your Answers Against Mine In This Video…



How did you do? Be sure to tell me in the comment box below…

Now let’s take a look at this video and see how CG affects stall speed and other performance aspects that you might not remember from ground school



Click To Enlarge

Aircraft Weight and Balance

Man! That was a ton of content! What did you think? How did you do in the quiz? Leave me a comment below

Tagged as: Aircraft Weight and Balance

  • Jim

    Hey Jason, Anoter great video; however, my math does not equals yours? I took our model and incorporated it into an excell sheet for future use based on your outline. For the second video, the base empty weight of 1,750 x’ 39.0 = 68,250. Based on your vid you show a moment of 67,375? The ramp moment is off as well? I doubled checked with my calc to confirm my numbers Am I doing something wrong here? I will be glad to forward my sheet to you for your thoughts?

    Jim

  • Jim

    “Your” model…sorry about that..need to proof read before sending…bad habit of mine

  • Anonymous

    haha don’t sweat it!

    Thanks Jim!

    All Math was done on the fly. As you saw and heard…

    The main point I want to get across however is the concept

    Once you know how to do it that’s what’s important

    Jason

  • Dave

    I saw the same difference. I suspect the arm of 39 was rounded off. It’s probably 38.5. You have the concept correct and the difference is immaterial. You are still in the ‘envelope’ with either figure.

  • Fernando Russek

    Thanks Jason, very clear and complete.

  • Anonymous

    Fernando,

    Really glad you enjoyed it my friend

    Jason

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  • Lcambre

    You must have gotten 100% on your FOI test. You really make alot of this easy.
    I’m working on CFI rotorcraft and I’m thinking of telling my students to take your course. Any comments? Lester

  • Airforce 1

    hey
    im not a pilot yet (only eleven) but im going for airforce so i subscribe for these kinds of things to get as much expierience as possible. im saying this to explain the loony questions i might ask such as:

    whats arm? you kept talking about it in the vid and i was trying to figure it out

  • Jdavidrich

    No matter how many times I multiply 1750 times 39 I come up with 68,250; not with 67,375. So I am stumped right off the bat. What did I do wrong??? Thanks….

  • Del

    Merry Christmas, Delano Steinacker Sr.

  • James

    “Trust But Verify”! As you said earlier you did this on the fly. The resulting numbers were very small and didn’t make a noticeable dent in the end. It is after all the concept that matters most. Jason YOU ROCK, your way only took me two minutes from start to finish and I didn’t need an asprin. I had always struggled with this but NOT anymore. Thank You

  • Captain Wolf

    Jason, fantastic!  Now I can do it without any problems. Thanks ;)  

  • Sturgis Griffin

    Jason awesome video’s!  I have learned so much from this resource that you are providing to people like me as an aspiring pilot.  One quick question though you said weight x arm = moment shouldn’t 1750 x 39 =   68250.   How did you get that number?  Thanks

  • Vrooden

    Jason,               
    Two excellent videos.  My stage 1 checkride is tomorrow, and  the W/B sheet was beatin me up.  I used your vid to go thru it, and the numbers worked out fine  (I used the numbers I was given, not yours).  Thank you and I will be signing up for my free 7 days and whoring your knowledge for all I can get. As a student pilot, I have learned that everyone has a different opinion.   The more opinions you can get, the better off you are, because the reality is somewhere in the gray area.  I watched your crosswind (flaps up) landing vid, and that helped a lot.  I have always thought I should save that last notch of flaps (even on a good day) because it helps maintain positive control on final.   I haven’t found an instructor yet that is comfortable w/ that.   They are upset at my approach speed even though they should know that the last notch, combined with a tiny flare will burn up 10 knots in a hurry.   Just one more decision that makes me comfortable and makes them say that I don’t know enough to make that call.  Do you have anything posted about using a GPS in training (heh, don’t  get me started)

    Thank You,
    Vrooden
    vrooden@yahoo.com

  • Vrooden

    the  arm for the empty weight in my POH for the 172 says 38.7, thats what I used

  • Vrooden

    the ‘arm’ is the length of torque.  for example if you push on a lever 1 foot away from the center of where it turns (the fulcrum) with 10 pounds, its the same (10 (foot x pounds)) as pushing on it at 2 feet away with 5 pounds (still 10 (foot x pounds))

  • Will

    hey airforce 1, the arm is the distance between the DATUM and the point of the aircraft where the pilot seats, the passenger, where the luggage goes etc. its used for measuring the moment of each item in the airplane and used to find out by calculations the jason talks about here to see if the airplane’s CG(center of gravity) is inside its op limits.

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