Aviation Regulations – Great Photo – Why Weight & Balance Matter
Received this in email today . . . Wow!
Click for full-size image
Air Boeing 747-45EM taking off from runway 36L at Amsterdam-Schiphol, Netherlands.
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The great timing and angle just makes this shot, and the size of the 747 look surreal.
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The distance to the fence was 145 meters (475ft)…
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I wonder if anyone computed the takeoff distance prior to the trip.
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This is an amazing picture of a disaster that didn’t happen. From the smallest airplane to the largest, weight & balance calculations are a critical part of flight safety.
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From the looks of this 747, the weight was within the CG envelope, but if they’d have added one more ‘marshmallow’ to each snack tray, this BIRD might not have cleared the fence !!!
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The landing gear must have gone through the opening in the fence.
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2 Comments
October 5th, 2010 at 12:54 am
Paula, I beg to disagree on the comment on this specific picture. If you take a look at the Google Map of where the picture was taken you’ll see why some of your comment is plain wrong:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=eham+airport&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.957999,73.740234&ie=UTF8&hq=eham+airport&hnear=&radius=15000&ll=52.348016,4.71218&spn=0.003388,0.009001&t=h&z=17
You assumed that this road would lead to the very end of the runway 36L/18L at EHAM, and that is definitely not the case.
And EVA is a cargo company, so adding one marshmallow per tray, typically 3 in this case, would have been little weight increase after all…
And a quick Google Earth check gave me a takeoff roll of about 6600′ feet, which is quite the norm for a bird this size and weight.
No wonder this is such a nice spot to take pictures from!
Having said all this, I very much support your comment on how critical W&B calculations are, and how common a mistake this is in GA and, too often, also in Part 135 ops. The fate of the singer Aaliyah and her crew shall not be forgotten.
Ciao, Luca
October 7th, 2010 at 9:00 am
Thanks for your insights, Luca!
The comments were from an unattributed email – thanks for shedding some light on this dramatic photo!