ETHIOPIAN AVIATION ACADAMY (EAA)
PILOT TRAINING SCHOOL (PTS)
MASS AND BALANCE
ASSIGNMENT
THE LOAD AND TRIM SHEET
LAST MINUTE LOADING OR CHANGES (LMC)
ABEL TESHOME………………ID/ 108698
1
THE LOAD AND TRIM SHEET
The mass of an aircraft and the location of its centre of gravity are vital information required
before commencement of flight.
In order to calculate an aircraft’s mass and balance we use two useful methods. They are
Load and trim sheets.
The LOAD Sheet-(how much load)
This part of the sheet deals about how much load the aircraft is experiencing and make sure
it’s us per standard and limitation.
The calculation use the likes of obtaining weight of aircraft from manuals, calculating
maximum zero fuel weight, maximum take-off weight and maximum landing weight.
The load sheet required by JAR-OPS,
Subpart J includes the following
mandatory information:
Airplane registration and type
Mass of take-off fuel and trip
fuel
Airplane CG position
TOM, LM and ZFM
Traffic load, passengers,
baggage, and freight
The identity of the loader
Flight number
PIC
Mass of consumable other than
fuel
2
The Trim sheet-(where)
This part is all about where the mass should be distributed on the aircraft and where
the CG is located. Once the pilot is sure the aircraft doesn’t exceed any weight
limitation (after preparing load sheet) it is necessary to determine where each load
(including passenger and cargo) shall should be placed in order to obtain desirable
stability and controllability.
It can be used to graphically determine and display the CG position for all relevant
loading states.
Generally, the load and trim sheet have two parts, part A and part B.
The left Part A is the load sheet contains 3 sections which states the mass distribution. Including
Section 1
limiting TOM
maximum allowable traffic load
under load before any last minute changes
Section 2
Gives the distribution of the Traffic Load.
Baggage
Cargo
Mai
Passengers
Section 3
Is a summary of the loading and is a crosscheck that limiting values are not
exceeded.
The Right part B is trim sheet which shows how the position of centre of gravity represented for
each mass from DOM to LM and includes elements for each portion of the load.
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LAST MINUT LOADING OR CHANGES (LMC)
It might be sometimes necessary to adjust the load sheet after it has been completed. It is a way
to enter late alternations or updates to a final produced load sheet, without requiring revisions to the
main body or the preparation of new a document.
In doing so, we must not exceed the:
allowable underload calculation
maximum mass and balance limits for zero fuel, take-off and landing
limitation of any compartment that is intended to be used
There is a maximum allowable change to the number of passengers or hold load as an LMC, which
will be specified in the individual operators Operations Manual for each aircraft type.
The LMC should contain information about:
the mass of the load to be changed
the load to be changed (bags, passengers and/or cargo etc)
the nature of the change
the intended location of the load
the total mass and index change of the LMC
If there is any LMC occurs after the completion of the mass and balance documentation, it must be
brought to the attention of the captain and should clearly be entered on the documentation. The
captain should approve the mass and balance sheet.