Aircraft weight - Why weight and balance are important?

The weight and balance are of extreme importance to the control of the aircraft. If the weight and balance is not in the correct place, the aircraft will crash. Why weight and balance are so important? The aircraft is a free body that flies in the sky, but this body, to be in equilibrium all forces that act on him must have the same values. In flight the aircraft has the two forces in the vertical direction, the lift given by the wing that points in the upward direction and the weight that points in the downward direction. If we have two forces that act in a body, the resultant of that forces will govern the movement of the body. If lift force is higher than weight force, the aircraft will move upward. If weight force is higher than lift force then the aircraft moves downward.Easy to understand, no? Up and down, up and down...of the aircraft is caused by this difference between lift and weight.

The same applies in the horizontal direction, in this case the forces involved are the drag and the engine thrust.The engine thrust will be a force that moves the aircraft forward and the drag is the force that prevents the forward movement of the aircraft. If values of drag and thrust are the same, then the aircraft is in equilibrium, in this particular case at constant velocity, no acceleration involved. If thrust is higher that drag, the aircraft moves forward increasing is velocity with positive acceleration, if drag is higher that thrust the aircraft will decrease velocity with negative acceleration.

All this four forces act on the aircraft, but where they act? Where? Are they applied in the same point?No!!The forces do not act in the same point! If the forces are not applied in the same point, then! Moments are involved. The lift point is well defined, located in the aerodynamic center of the wing, but the weight, Hooooo!! The weight. The aircraft weight changes during flight. The aircraft will leave the airport with 200000 pounds and land in the other airport with only 100000 pounds. Why? 100000 pounds of fuel has been burned by the engines.This means that the center of gravity of the aircraft is always changing during flight. Then, is very rare that aerodynamic center coincides with gravity center. If this two forces act on different points then, a moment is generated in the aircraft. This moment will cause the aircraft to respond with nose up or nose down, depending if the gravity center is forward or rearward of aerodynamic center. The same phenomena occurs with the thrust force and drag force. With engines in the wing the thrust line is in a lower position than the drag line, causing the aircraft to respond with nose up or nose down.

This two moments caused by this four forces must be counterbalanced to maintain the aircraft equilibrium, otherwise the aircraft will be, nose up indefinitely and will begin to climb forever. The structure that gives the force and the moment to react and maintain the equilibrium is: the horizontal stabilizer and elevator. The elevator will react, causing a negative moment with the same amplitude of wing moment, maintaining the aircraft in equilibrium. The distance between the gravity center and stabilizer aerodynamic center will define the permitted location of the gravity center.If we have a large distance, distance multiplied by force, will result in a high moment, causing the aircraft to respond with excessive angular velocity. With a small distance we obtain a small moment, causing the aircraft to respond very slowly. Aircraft control must be maintain during all phases of flight, therefore the location of the gravity center and the moment about this point is critical. Location of the gravity center (C.G.) changes from aircraft to aircraft, depending if they have the engines on the wing or fuselage and if the cargo compartment is located in the rear fuselage or under the passengers compartment. But the C.G. is typically located near the 25% of the mean aerodynamic cord (MAC)of the wing. The MAC is a wing cord located in a specific location over the wing span? This is given by the wing geometry. C.G. must be located between 15% to 40% of the mean aerodynamic cord during all phases of flight. For that reason the pilots control the aircraft loading cards, and check if the aircraft as the correct C.G position during take-off, cruise and landing.

If aircraft weight and balance are not checked the aircraft lose the capability of control, and a crash will occur. At take-off, if the C.G. is located at, for example 5% of the AMC, the distance between the horizontal stabilizer and C.G. will be large causing a large moment of reaction. The pilot will apply nose up at take-off, but the moment will be increased and will cause a very quick nose up action causing the rear fuselage to touch the runway and causing a crash. The opposite is if the C.G. is located at 75% of the MAC. The distance will be small and the reaction moment also very small, this will cause a very slow rotation of the aircraft, the aircraft will not be able to climb and if and obstacle exist after the runway, this means a crash. Please weight and balance are of extreme importance for the aircraft, more if the aircraft is small, never forget that! When you modify and aircraft, please check weight and balance before that. You risk that after applying the modification the aircraft can no longer flight