Weight at Altitude?

[PSM727]

Has anyone ever weighed themselves at altitude? Being that there is less gravity the higher you go, and that the centrifugal force of the moving airplane in relation to the earth makes us lighter, would the weight loss be only negligible or noticable? What would be the formula to figure this out? Say flying at FL370, TAS 420 kts, person's weight 170 lbs. Just something i've been wondering about since i found out the weight of the earth can be calculated by figuring the difference in gravity at different altitudes on the ground.

 

[Andy Neill]

That formual would be
W1 = (R/(R+r)^2 * Wo
Where Wo is your normal weight
W1 is the weight at altitude
R is the Radius of the earth
r is the altitude in the same units as radius of the earth

For instance, if a 200 pound pilot were flying 6 miles above the earth (R=3986.25 miles), he would weigh just under 199.4 pounds at altitude.

 

[Cardinal]

The A320 attempts to maintain 1G acceleration when hand-flying with a neutral stick. At altitude it will slowly pitch up due to the slightly reduced gravity, trying to give it's accelerometers the nominal 1G they're looking for.