Gasbag wrote:Totally agree with @Trent 772.
374 pax all who’ve been stuffing themselves for 2 weeks. Handling agent gave us ACTUAL bag weights which took us 5 tonnes over max. Recalc with notional weights and we were several tonnes under max. Paperwork looked legal and we calculated performance on a far more realistic weight. Could still flex way down for take off as 330 is stunning!
We need to be careful here.
In the airline world (unlike the world of GA) there are a number of limiting take off weights.
One is the manufacturer’s MTOW, which in an A330 is not terribly heavy in the grand scheme of things? Around 240 tonnes or so?
But there may be a different ‘certified’ weight specified by an operator, who can choose to have the aircraft ‘certified’/declared for a reduced weight, often for a reduced cost, perhaps with an option to later increase the MTOW for a fee and the cost of certification change. Some airlines which do not require a high MTOW choose to have a lower MTOW for that particular aircraft to reduce costs (Landing fees and air traffic control fees are MTOW based).
Then we come to WAT limited weights which depend largely on environmental factors, and performance limited weights which will depend on the specifics of the departure runway, weather and configuration/thrust selected.
All of these will be distilled into a Regulated Take Off Weight. The lowest of all of the above.
Certainly Gasbag was placed in an unusual situation. I can only presume that they are referring to ignoring the maximum
certified weight for his/her specific airline? Rather than
KNOWINGLY ignoring any of the others?
But this highlights the point of ‘normalisation of deviance’. Where rules/limits are knowingly broken for no good reason.
However these big jet ‘complications’ are all very different to the overwhelming majority of GA aircraft that will have
one number for maximum take off weight.
It really is very simple!