Being weighed to get on an airplane

[sangria]

So I just read this article about Uzbekistan Airlines.

www.cnn.com/2015/08/12/travel/airline-weighing-passengers/?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool&iref=obnetwork



And I started thinking about how I’ve always wonder how American and European carriers figure the weight of the aircraft, despite weighing only luggage. Well that is addressed in the article and apparently the average weight assigned to an adult passenger is 190-195 and for a child it’s 75lbs.



So, as a nervous flier I feel like this creates a huge margin of error. How can this possibly work? Anybody know? And what about people’s weights increasing so much over the last couple decades. Will the FAA adjust the average?



I think some small propeller type aircraft still must have to weigh each passenger individually, no?

[calmcosmo]

Yes, the small planes often weigh everyone still. I flew on a C 130 recently (military flight) and they weighed everyone prior to boarding.

As for the balance, I don't think that a big commercial airliner would be out of balance because folks are heavier. Things do tend to average out, so even if the passengers are heavier, all are heavier.

[Susie]

Aug 14, 2015 18:00:55 GMT -5 sangria said:

I think some small propeller type aircraft still must have to weigh each passenger individually, no?

Yep.  I had to be weighed at the gate before getting on a little 8 seat Cape Air plane once at BOS.  They had me step on the same kind of scale they use for weighing checked luggage.  It actually wasn't a big deal, except that it'd be really time consuming and kind of a logistical clusterfluck to weigh >8 people.  They were calling passenger names and struggling a little with rounding people up even with just the 8 of us.  I don't think anyone besides the gate employee (even me) saw the number.  The weight was with all carryons + personal items, too, so it felt less personal/intrusive/etc. than, e.g., I currently feel getting weighed every couple weeks at my OB's office. 

[chickadee77]

Lol. We fly private a lot, and we have stories of people wanting to bring weight sets with them because, well, flying private.

No.

Also, there's a huuuuuuge difference between "flying heavy" and "flying light," not only in fuel consumption, but in flight paths, takeoff/landing quality, etc.

[LoveTrains]

Aug 14, 2015 18:12:28 GMT -5 Susie said:

Aug 14, 2015 18:00:55 GMT -5 sangria said:

I think some small propeller type aircraft still must have to weigh each passenger individually, no?

Yep.  I had to be weighed at the gate before getting on a little 8 seat Cape Air plane once at BOS.  They had me step on the same kind of scale they use for weighing checked luggage.  It actually wasn't a big deal, except that it'd be really time consuming and kind of a logistical clusterfluck to weigh >8 people.  They were calling passenger names and struggling a little with rounding people up even with just the 8 of us.  I don't think anyone besides the gate employee (even me) saw the number.  The weight was with all carryons + personal items, too, so it felt less personal/intrusive/etc. than, e.g., I currently feel getting weighed every couple weeks at my OB's office. 

They fly such small planes out to the Vineyard and Nantucket. Were you on one of those little ones? I feel like we talked about this after it happened and it sounded terrifying!