Was on the 26/11 QF1461Syd-CBR Dash-8 Q400 service - first flight of the day. It was due to depart at 0615. We boarded at around 0605 via gate 1C and the bus to the aircraft. With all passengers onboard the CSM gave a PA to say we were very overloaded and needed to offload 2 passengers who were only travelling with carryon and they would be put on the next available flight. Two passengers put up their hands and they were offloaded. About 5 minutes later and another PA from the CSM “we are still overloaded and require another 2 passengers to be offloaded”. Again two passengers put up their hands and were offloaded.
The question is would the weight and balance on a Dash 8 Q400 not be able to be calculated prior to the boarding of the passengers? If so why then board passengers then take off two then another two to get inside the weight and balance numbers?
I have a friend who used to fly the Q400, and if you give me a couple of days, I’ll see if I can get an answer from him.
To be honest, it strikes me as a bit odd. You aren’t going very far. I would not expect the Dash to carry much, if any, cargo. And I’d certainly expect the aircraft to be able to carry a full load of passenger, plus reasonable luggage, on what is, after all, a short sector.
The only other real variable is fuel, and I wonder if you had too much (for whatever reason). And not necessarily for take off, but it might also have been a landing weight issue.
In mainline, a provisional loadsheet was issued about 45 minutes out. That was good enough for us to make preliminary performance calculations. The final load sheet (legally) cannot be issued until all passengers, cargo, and fuel, are on board. The people doing the loading (and the load sheets) are not privy to any performance limiting issues. They only know the standard max figures, not numbers that you’ve just worked out. I’ve seen occasional cases where working the numbers with the ATIS gives you a number that is less than the final loadsheet comes up with. In that case you’ve got too lose a bit of weight before takeoff, generate new numbers using different performance parameters, or change runways. All three are regularly used out of LAX.