Today it is going to be short…. maybe. I think, one of the areas where we might caught ourselves cheating a bit, when using flight simulator, is aircraft weight and balance. Yes, some aircraft addons have special panels for controlling aircraft loading. Those panels allows you to configure fuel, people and stuff on board – eg. payload and some of them also plot the CG diagram. For other aircrafts, we just set the weight within the simulator interface …. which will usually just tell you, whether the aircraft weight is below maximum permitted… But even if it is, it does not mean that it is Ok to fly it. If the weight is not in the correct place, within the aircraft… well, this might bring issues…
And yes, in flight simulator it might be fun to try what will happen (and to test the flight model). But if we want to follow the real world procedures, we should check the weight and balance properly before every flight. It is easy with those aircraft that has those fancy panel for weight and balance… but what about those that does not? And, what is the last time you actually computed the weights “on paper” and checked the loading by plotting the resulting values on the CG diagram? If the answer is, “not recently”, like for me, you can use the sheets I attached below. I created them for some of the aircraft across major simulators that I like to fly.
The above archive contains PDF and ODS versions of the sheets. The PDF version is for printing, the ODS for the case you need to edit the sheets. It contains sheets for the following aircrafts:
X-Plane 11:
Prepar3D:
Microsoft Flight Simulator:
- Textron Aviation Cessna 152 with JPLogistic C152 mod
- Textron Aviation Cessna 172 (Classic and G1000 variant, wheel and ski model)
- Textron Aviation Cessna 172 Amphibian/Floats version (Classic and G1000 variant)
Just to note, the sheets might not be 100% accurate, as they are combination of aircraft simulator values and values from various POH. But I believe for study and simulations purposes, they are precise enough. If you find any error within them, I would be happy if you let me know, as well as if you create sheets for another aircrafts based on them.
Speaking of license, I do not care what you do with those sheets, modify them and share further as you wish. But the result of your actions should not be anything that would result in some financial gain. In that case, contact me and we will see.
And of course, these sheets are intended for flight simulation purposes only!
Some pictures
