alpine1989 said:
Numbnuts in Dispatch? Please elaborate.
Numb: no sensation or feeling
Nuts: crazy or testicles
Put the two together and use your imagination.
As it applies to this situation:
Dispatch plans a flight at a specific ZFW and a "hope for the best" CG. This includes that ever-so-valuable cargo. As we all know that an aft CG gives a better burn than a forward one. There is no "load planning" going on at this stage. Also forcast winds for the Pacific are pulled from the ether, because past behavior is no indication of future performance, i.e. winds aloft are pulled from someone's arse because we don't like to use historical data. <--<sarcasm>
Fast forward a few hours to the flight. As Hunter alluded, the crew gets the load form 15-20 minutes prior to departure. It very much is a delicate balancing act to get the aircraft in CG, and if it's loaded wrong, out of CG, our contracted baggage handlers have to move stuff around. This fact is compounded by the fact that no computers are currently authorized to compute W/B on our aircraft. The FO does it manually, mostly by himself, while the CA cheers him on.
Due to our poor planning, we've booked the requisite number of passengers, but can't take them because someone thinks the aircraft will be "overweight." We've taken several significant delays while cargo is redistributed. We've also had an overburn problem lately, and I think it's probably due to a more forward CG than was planned as well as inaccurate application of winds and temps. aloft. It's not like we're new to this either. We're just slow and lack adequate leadership.