Loading
Fuel planning with legal reserves, fuel weight, and weight and balance.
Weight and balance, fuel weight, fuel planning with the legal reserve, weight shifts, ballast, and reading a POH performance table between its printed values. Pilots use these tools before every flight where weight or fuel is close. Start with weight and balance, which checks your center of gravity against your envelope at takeoff and after the fuel burn. Check both: burning fuel moves the CG, and a load that is in limits for takeoff can be out of limits for landing.
Planning and education aid. Not for primary navigation. Full disclaimer
I want to plan fuel for a trip, with the legal reserve
- Fuel planning
Fuel for a trip by leg, with taxi and climb allowances, fuel to an alternate, and a reserve from the 14 CFR 91.151 or 91.167 minimum, checked against your usable fuel.
I want to turn fuel volume into weight
- Fuel weight
Fuel weight from volume, or volume from weight, for avgas or jet fuel at a nominal density or one you enter.
I want to check weight and center of gravity
- Weight and balance
Total weight, moment, and center of gravity from your stations, checked against your CG envelope at takeoff and after the fuel burn.
I want to see where the CG goes when I move weight, or how much to move
- Weight shift
How far the CG moves when you move weight from one station to another, or how much weight to move to put the CG where you need it.
I want to find the ballast that brings the CG into limits
- Ballast to move the CG
How much ballast at a chosen arm brings the CG to a target, and the new total weight.
I want to read a POH performance table between its values
- Performance table lookup
Reads a POH performance table of one, two, or three variables, like takeoff distance by altitude, temperature, and weight, between its listed values, refuses to guess beyond them, and applies corrections as labeled steps.