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When going to load a heavy piece of equipment onto an aircraft I found that the Strut which supports the back of the aircraft when loading had been left at the aircraft's home base! I calculated that without it there was a danger that the aircraft would "tip" during the loading operation. There were literally hundreds of onlookers and I packed as many of these willing "volunteers" into the front of the cargo compartment worked out a total weight based on65kgs per person, I then determined the load arm for the "volunteers" based on the distance from the middle of them to the Aircraft CofG Datum point giving me the number of "moments" forward of the Datum point, did the same with the piece of equipment as if it had been at the aftmost point on the aircraft. this gave me the "moments" aft of the Datum point. Subtracting the smaller figure from the larger and dividing it by the total weight gave me an "actual" CofG distance from the Trim Datum Point, comparing the resultant with the limits on the aircraft load sheet told me that the aft limits would not be exceeded and as a consequence the aircraft wouldn't tip! We successfully completed loading and the "volunteers" were clearly very happy at having made a contribution!! Happy days!!
