ImPilot I Fly

The following statement is not backed up by any known knowledge or scientific data....

I believe some operators have a 50 pound weight in the tail cone that alleviates a lot of the CG issues.

I was flying the ORD side last spring when we picked up a lot of flying. Went from 30 departures a day to 100 the next month and 120ish the next month. Again. Spitballing the numbers. Don’t remember the exact data. But this is in the ball park. We battled with Envoy ops over ballast. They were not accustomed to needing as much ballast for so many departures. Luckily our chief coordinated with Envoy ops pretty efficiently and laid out some pre planning procedures so that the ballast loading process went a little more smoothly.

We are now reconfiguring our loading on the 200 to address the issue system wide. Going from 4 zones 16-12-12-10 to 6 zones. 8-8-8-8-8-10 to help alleviate the problem.

I agree with you Rick. I’m a commuter and will do just about anything to help someone get on the jumpseat but fudging 800 pounds is out of my comfort range. Is it unsafe? No. But if something happens and you find yourself in an office sitting in a chair across from three managers and or three feds it’s hard to justify your actions.

I’ve been booted off the jumpseat on skywest several times. Captains are always very apologetic but I assure them I understand fully.

Even had a captain say.....well I can get you on but I have to take off 16 checked bags...what do you want to do? I smiled and said. I wanna go call out emergency and let you guys get out of here on time with all of our customers bags. He nodded in agreement. I could tell he was putting the ball in my court to make it a little easier for him to say no. Totally understood. I went back up to the gate, called in emergency and caught the next one. #commuterclause

MidnightHauler

Man, no joke. Taking off on 25 is like driving down a two lane road in Louisiana. Sometimes I think the nose strut will snap off.

amcnd

Funny how everyone thinks its just SkyWest planes. Yet half our planes are EV, or AS, CA or BR, or xxxxA tail numbers.. all old Endeavor, ASA/ACA/Comair planes.

KSCessnaDriver

As if you're the only carrier flying planes that weren't purchased by your company...

gojo

I don’t think it’s the planes at all. To an extent it’s a challenge with the 200’s. But to me it seems that Skywest is more restrictive than other 200 operators. No proof, just a hunch. Maybe your alt gas is rounded up heavily? Or maybe it’s your reserve? I don’t know. It’s gotta be frustrating for both sides here. Last year restricted to 42 from msp to grr. And that’s not a short flight. Most times when you’re carrying alt gas it seems 46 is the magic number in my experience. I flew the 200 for over 3 years and I totally get that the CG is adversely affected with a Jumpseater. But why are cabin seats reduced so drastically on Skywest flights when an alternate is required?

Tippy

One theory I have is that aerodata tries to get the CG to an "optimal point" therefore suggesting more ballast than needed. There has been more than one occasion that it kicks back 600 lbs of ballast required. I would then add say 200 (arbitrary #s) and it would give me a valid manifest. Not sure if anyone else has come across this but I have seen it more than once.

Check Complete

One thing that is happening that I've been told that will help forward CG issues is the grouping of passengers from 4 sections to 6.

Soon the pax sections on the 200 will have 6 sections an that is supposed to, I've been told, will give better resolution to the CG forward point.

We will see?

Short flights with an alternate are usually limited by limited by landing weight max.

wrxpilot

So did a SkyWest pilot steal your wife or something? Last I heard, they have almost 3,500 pilots. They’re probably not all out to get you.

WesternSkies

I too have experienced this.

Fr8Thrust

I’m not even going to entertain this. Just make sure you’re counting the children appropriately. Maybe you’ve misconstrued my words.