Maximize Small Aircraft Capacity with Scales

The most important goal in commercial aviation is the safety of passengers and crew. Tremendous efforts are made to assure that aircraft are built safely. Critical functions are provided with redundancy, to avoid disaster when there is some mechanical failure. Engines are designed to work well beyond their rated specifications, both in terms of power and environment. Navigation devices provide a variety of fail safe functions, allowing pilots to obtain necessary flight information.

Of course, any aircraft is designed for a specific capacity. It should never be loaded beyond this point. This includes the weight of passengers, luggage and fuel. Larger aircraft are typically limited by the number of passenger seats. Statistical data provides the average weight of a single passenger and their luggage. The correct amount of fuel needed can then be calculated. But statistical data becomes in issue for much smaller aircraft. If there are only six passenger seats, it is always possible that each of the passengers, and the pilot, may be considerably lighter than average. This would allow the plane to carry more cargo, or require less fuel. On the other hand, they may be much heavier than average. This could result in an exceedingly dangerous situation where the plane was carrying more than it was designed for.

Industrial scales, such as those provided by Arlyn Scales, are being pressed into service to obtain actual accurate weights of the passengers, luggage and crew. These platform scales provide resolution as high as 1/10 of a pound. The electronic scales may transmit their data to a computer system for totals and record purposes. These digital scales are light in weight, but very rugged. It is easy to move the platform scale to a loading area, and then move it back to the cargo area, if necessary. Industrial scales can become a critical tool in the efforts to maintain the highest levels of safety.

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