Weight and balance calculator
Work out take-off and landing weight and centre of gravity from your own aircraft's figures.
Use your own aircraft's figures. Saved in this browser only.
Invented example, not a real aircraft. Not saved or printable.
Incomplete
Compared with the limits you entered
The chart appears once the envelope has at least three corners in order.
Print a blank worksheet
One A4 page that walks through the sums in the order you do them, for pilots who work it out by hand. Keep a few in the aircraft folder or at the flight desk.
Choose "Save as PDF" in the print dialog to keep a copy.
- 1Loading. A row for each seat and the baggage, with weight, arm, moment and any item limit.
- 2Fuel. Each tank from volume to weight to moment, at take-off and for the fuel burnt.
- 3Totals. Zero fuel, take-off and landing weights, each with its centre of gravity and the limits from the manual.
- 4Envelope. A blank grid to plot each condition against the flight manual's envelope.
Straight answers
How do you work out weight and balance?
For each item, multiply its weight by its arm, the distance from the aircraft's datum, to get its moment. Add up the weights and the moments; the total moment divided by the total weight is the centre of gravity. It must sit inside the envelope in the flight manual at both the take-off and the landing weight.
Where do the empty weight and arm come from?
From the aircraft's own weight and balance report, made when it was last weighed. It differs from one aircraft to the next of the same type, because of fitted equipment, paint and repairs, so never use another aircraft's figures or a type average.
Does weight and balance change from airfield to airfield?
No. It depends on the aircraft and what is loaded into it. The airfield changes the performance you need, such as the take-off distance, which you can work out with the take-off and landing distance calculators.
Why check the landing centre of gravity too?
Fuel burns off during the flight, and if the tanks are forward or aft of the centre of gravity, it moves as they empty. An aircraft inside the envelope at take-off can be outside it by the time it lands.
My flight manual draws the envelope against moment. Can I use it?
Yes. Many manuals, Cessna and Piper among them, plot weight against moment, often divided by 100 or 1,000, rather than against the centre of gravity arm. Choose moment and the divisor the manual uses, and enter the corners as they are printed. Typing moments into an arm envelope gives a wrong answer, so check which one your manual uses.
Are my aircraft details saved?
Only in your own browser, so the figures are there next time you open the calculator on the same device. Nothing you enter is sent to Volanti unless you save the result to a flight plan.
Is the weight and balance calculator free?
Yes. It is free for any pilot, club or school, with nothing to sign up for.
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