Finnish carrier Finnair is asking passengers to voluntarily weigh themselves before boarding flights
Finnish carrier Finnair is asking passengers to voluntarily weigh themselves before boarding flights
Finland's national carrier Finnair is asking passengers to be weighed voluntarily and anonymously so that it can update their standard weight figures.
Almost everything that gets onto a commercial plane — fuel, checked-in baggage, cargo and meals — is weighed. For passengers and their cabin bags, most airlines use average data.
But Finland’s national carrier Finnair said Friday that it started asking passengers this week voluntarily and anonymously hop onto a scale with their hand luggage at the country’s main airport in Helsinki, the airline said Friday. The aim is to get their own figures.
“We will need data for both winter season and for summer season — in winter season people typically have heavier clothing, which impacts weights,” Finnair spokeswoman Päivyt Tallqvist told The Associated Press, adding that the survey would last until May.
Passengers boarding onto European and long-haul flights won’t be “penalized for their weight,” and “the numbers are kept discreet, away from prying eyes,” she added.
If i get extra free luggage for not be a fat fuck then im happy.
Weight and weight balance is a big deal for aircraft stability. For example, a bunch of weight in the back of the plane will cause it try to pitch up more, which can matter quite a bit when landing.
Don't they have sticks for that up front?
I think it can be compensated for to some small degree. But... A deeper explanation is needed.
A plane has a center of mass (or gravity) which is the gravity balance point of the plane. It also has a center of lift which is like the center of gravity but for the lift force of the wing. See pic:
If the center of lift and center of gravity aren't in the same horizontal location along the length of the plane, the plane has a net force that rotates the nose up or down.
It's like if you had a yard stick and balanced it on your finger. And then added a weight somewhere between your finger and one end. The yard stick will start to rotate (tilt).
The horizontal stabilizer applies a force as well, and it is trimmed to balance the other forces and set the angle of attack (pitch) of the plane. The elevator allows momentary adjustment of pitch.
I may not describe this perfectly but... When a plane has too much weight towards the rear, it will be unstable (and dangerous) to fly. When a plane has too much weight towards the nose it will be somewhat sluggish but stable.
Balancing nose heavy is preferable to tail heavy in general due to the stability issue. A little bit of tail heavy is a bit dangerous and a bit of nose heavy is no big deal. I think another factor is that the tendency of a plane to pitch up could result in aerodynamic stall (loss or lift). Of course, if a plane is too nose-heavy, you can't climb.
Front to back balance is really important to how the plane handles. Side to side balance matters but in terms of passengers / cargo, they're more narrowly distributed about the center of the plane compared to their distribution front to back.
Other problem is that a weight shift has to be countered with elevator trim, which can increase aerodynamic drag and therefore fuel consumption.
I imagine that there will be a lot of FUD about this given the general lack of knowledge about how airplanes actually work and what center of gravity is all about.
I’d be uncomfortable if large aircraft were operating so close to tolerances that it made this kind of thing necessary. I’ve been on small aircraft where they’ve asked passengers to switch seats before takeoff to balance out the load (I’m assuming there’s a scale readout on each wheel).
Assuming they have those data already, I’m not sure how per-flight data would change what they’re doing (as opposed to averaging), unless they’re talking about tiny planes.
It may be less about safety and more about collecting data to improve the accuracy of their estimates.
I mean, sure maybe. But we’re talking about highly engineered systems here. They should already have tightly understood error bands.
Again, for the puddle jumpers, I can see it. I’ve been on planes with 20-30 seats where they reassigned passengers before takeoff (again, probably based on load data from the wheels), and that makes perfect sense to me. If we assume a model where people pick a seat at random, there will be some percentage of flights where too many people (or at least too much weight) lands on one side of the plane. But as someone whose flown in everything from tiny helicopters to C-130s to giant international commercial airliners, there’s a point where the capacity of the plane should so vastly over-exceed its load that it just doesn’t matter.
That might be the case here, but the article doesn’t specify.
They just need some large truck stop scales they can roll the plane over before takeoff!
Why can’t they just weigh the whole plane? I’m mean they do it for big trucks right?
I doubt airplane scales exist and even if they did it would probably be very expensive to buy one for just this survey.
This is similar to the seat size problem.
Maybe standard seats should be bigger (and cost more) , with some option for smaller seats
You can then invite people to get on a scale to see if they qualify for a cheaper seat.
I a big tall person and I always feel sorry for the tiny people having to fly tucked in my armpit.
I always feel sorry for the tiny people having to fly tucked in my armpit
But its so soft and warm in there
And moist, lol