Ameriflight and Metro

[FracCapt]

I thought CVG was reduced to basically ad hoc runs after the recent changes in DHL. I know that a number of the CVG pilots came to PHX.

Could be....I don't know anybody that's been there for 5+ years. The DHL runs out of CVG were great....they loaded the airplane while you were inside sleeping or just hanging out, you show up 30 mins prior to departure time to get ready to go, then they bring you a weight and balance, close it up, and off you go. You did have to be careful when there were certain people loading because they would screw up the weights and you might be way out of CG....but the scissor link on the nosewheel would tell you whether the w+b they gave you was correct.

PHX was a good base when I was there, but it was relatively new. There was no base ACP at the time, and the base manager was pretty cool. There were only 4 or 5 99's there, a 1900, and a Metro...two Metros sometimes, based on seasonal runs. All of those routes, except one of the Metro runs, were UPS.

 

[Linetech]

You did have to be careful when there were certain people loading because they would screw up the weights and you might be way out of CG....but the scissor link on the nosewheel would tell you whether the w+b they gave you was correct.

Thats not always true, though the scissor link is a good indication of where you are W/B Wise. IV seen a Metro loaded correctly and it looked like it was going to fall on its A$$. All that was wrong with it was a weak front strut.

 

[DirtyBeech]

the cvg base is down to just a few metros and e120's doing ad hoc mostly.

 

[psysicx]

How senior is the 99 out of ONT?

 

[FracCapt]

Thats not always true, though the scissor link is a good indication of where you are W/B Wise. IV seen a Metro loaded correctly and it looked like it was going to fall on its A$$. All that was wrong with it was a weak front strut.

That sounds to me more like an over serviced front strut....not a weak one. Anyways, you could tell whether it was a weak strut by how far down it would go when you stand on the airstair door. This is how we verified that the CG was in a reasonable range, as stated on the paperwork, when we didn't witness the loading(which went slowly over the course of a few hours).

I once had a guy tell me the airplane was loaded well within CG limits while it was standing on the tailstand. I made them remove everything and re-weigh it. The problem was that somebody dropped a 0 from the end of a weight for the most rearward bay. They had it as something like 105 on the paperwork...when it was really 1050lbs. First indication it was wrong? Tailstand. Second? Scissor link.