Seating on small jet

[cinderlexa's mom]

Okay. This seemed scary and weird to me. I flew on a 707? jet and it was not full. Passengers were seated randomly on both sides of the jet. Before taxi, the flight attendent announced that at least 6 passengers would need to move to the right side of the jet to more evenly distribute weight.

It's terrifying to me to know that it makes that much of a difference!

Anyone else had this happen? Was the flight attendent just paranoid?

 

[Tara]

Oh yeah, I've had that happen, but only on a very small plane. Once, the flight attendant asked a few people to move and then said, "that should be okay" and another passenger said, "Should be? Lady, let me know if you need anyone else to move -- I want to hear that it WILL BE okay, so I'll sit anywhere you need me to!"

 

[dawnball]

It's normal, especially on partially full smaller planes. Makes it easier to "steer" if the plane is evenly balanced. You also need a balance front to back, so sometimes they move people that way. There's a good bit of safety margin built into those calculations though. I wouldn't woory - they aren't going to take off with a badly out of balance plane.

*bounce*

 

[NotUrsula]

I've had it happen on a UAL 737 out of Denver on several occasions. I think that the altitude there makes weight distribution more important.

All planes have to pay careful attention to weight; the FAA has very complex formulas that they use to calculate the weight and balance of the plane. Fuel is the heaviest thing, the longer the flight, the more of the allowable weight is going to be taken up by fuel. Some airports have weigh stations built into the taxiways, so that they literally can weigh the plane before it attempts to take off. Sometimes baggage or cargo can be deliberately left behind if a plane is too heavy for the takeoff conditions.

Here is an excerpt from Capt. Meryl Getline's column in USAToday this week, she is talking about the airport in San Diego, Lindbergh Field:

I have on occasion departed from Lindbergh toward the east. The times I did this, the weather was actually good but there was a "Santa Ana" blowing — a warm wind from the east. Because of the rapidly rising terrain in this direction, a "weight penalty" was imposed, meaning we had to wait and put some of our cargo on a later flight. (At least all of the luggage made it.)

Something else that is interesting to know is that wide-body jets can and do use Lindbergh, but they are weight-restricted. The runway is not long enough to accommodate the weight of a fully-loaded wide-body jet, which is why you won't find any nonstops to Europe or other distant points.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/getline/2005-08-15-getline_x.htm

 

[safetymom]

Nothing to worry about. Sometimes too luggage can throw things off so they will leave it behind. They would rather transport passengers than luggage in a weight situation.

 

[bicker]

I flew on a 707? jet

I'm pretty sure you mean a 717. Even that's not really a "small" jet, but it is 5-across seating instead of 6-across seating.

A 707 is actually a pretty large airplane, and isn't in wide service in the United States, anymore.

 

[DebbieB]

I was on a 34 seat commuter last month. Too many people were in the front, some had to move to the back. I had tried to standby for an earlier flight and was #35, didn't make it and had to wait 4 hours. They had to decide if they were even going to allow #34 on because of the weight. They only had 18 checked bags, so the let him on but made an announcement to try to put as many bags under the seats as possible to distribute the weight (there is very limited overhead space so they have a rack outside the steps to the plane where you can gate check rollaboards).

 

[localdriver]

Okay. This seemed scary and weird to me. I flew on a 707? jet and it was not full. Passengers were seated randomly on both sides of the jet. Before taxi, the flight attendent announced that at least 6 passengers would need to move to the right side of the jet to more evenly distribute weight.

It's terrifying to me to know that it makes that much of a difference!

Anyone else had this happen? Was the flight attendent just paranoid?

What is scary is when such attention to detail is absent. You had great pilots. The plane may have flown okay, but not optimum. They were looking for perfection. That's a good thing.

You were probably in a 717 or 737. 707's haven't be used for pax service in the US for many years. But a 707 was a GREAT airplane.

 

[cinderlexa's mom]

Thanks for the replies. I added a "?" behind 707, because I wasn't sure on the exact jet, just knew it was smaller than usual. As many of you have confirmed, my number was wrong.

I didn't think the airline or employees were doing anything "wrong", I just am a very paranoid flyer, and hate to know that things like this make such a difference. Especially because out of all my flights--this was the only time this happened... Seems like the more I learn about flying, the more I hate it!

 

[gw_lit]

Thanks for the replies. I added a "?" behind 707, because I wasn't sure on the exact jet, just knew it was smaller than usual. As many of you have confirmed, my number was wrong.

I didn't think the airline or employees were doing anything "wrong", I just am a very paranoid flyer, and hate to know that things like this make such a difference. Especially because out of all my flights--this was the only time this happened... Seems like the more I learn about flying, the more I hate it!

No problem about the wrong number, but I don't want to miss out on the game. Since you said "it was smaller than usual," I'm guessing it was a Canadair Regional Jet 700, seats 70 passengers with 2 seats on each side of the aisle. As others have mentioned, the re-balancing thing happens quite often!

 

[DVC-Don]

It's like being in a rowboat. Not everyone can sit on one side.

 

[clkelley]

I fly the 50 and 35 passenger Canadair Regional Air Jets all the time. Most of the time our flights are pretty full, so I've never had it mentioned on one of those. However, on a 25 passenger turboprop from Dallas to Ft. Sill, OK I have had the flight attendant ask some folks to move. We also had to keep the window coverings open during takeoff. That was pretty brutal in the middle of the summer in Dallas, TX since we had to sit on the runway for about 25 minutes.

Carol

 

[clkelley]

It's like being in a rowboat. Not everyone can sit on one side.

Disney's Pontoon boats for the Illuminations Cruises are the same way. I've been on those a couple of times and the Captain has asked us to distribute ourselves around the boat

Carol

 

[Piecey]

I took a commuter flight via US Air Express- on a 16 passenger plane. Scariest thing I've ever done in my life. They'd delayed our flight and told us it was due to a mechanical malfunction and we were waiting on another plane to come from Pittsburgh. Well, we started talking to other people in the airport and some had been there for 8 hours waiting on a plane from Pittsburgh (A 35 minute flight! MAX!).. so they finally started loading our luggage into the plane with the supposed malfunction.. but then told us that it was just ill equiped to land in the snow and we were waiting on the snow storm to pass over Pittsburgh.

Well, not too long after our departure we hit another snow storm and the pilot opened the curtain and yelled back at us that we were going to have to fly through it and hope to beat it to Pittsburgh because we didn't have enough gas to turn around...
That the plane weighed more than they'd initially thought (Because they'd shoved it to MAXIMUM capacity because of everyone who had missed the earlier flights due to the "mechanical malfunction")....

This was the first time I'd ever flown too. Not an experience I really care to repeat, either..

 

[ducklite]

It's like being in a rowboat. Not everyone can sit on one side.

LOL! Thanks for a great analogy.

Anne

 

[Tara]

Well, not too long after our departure we hit another snow storm and the pilot opened the curtain and yelled back at us that we were going to have to fly through it and hope to beat it to Pittsburgh because we didn't have enough gas to turn around...

Sorry, but my first reaction is....DUDE. That is Not Right. Personally, I consider myself on a need-to-know basis on a plane and that is information that I don't need to know. Fly the plane and don't alarm the passengers beyond telling them to stay buckled up and preparing them for rough air or a rough landing.

I've flown those itty-bitty planes before (and much smaller charter planes -- one was very much like being in an onld VW Bug with wings -- it even had little push-button locks on the doors!) and while they don't scare me, they aren't exactly easy on the stomach in a storm.

 

[disneyeveryyear]

DH, DS, DD and I flew to MCO on Thanksgiving evening '01. We left our small airport to STL on a small commuter jet.

We were the only 4 people on board. The attendant did ask that we sit in row 7-10 for balance purposes.

We found it amusing that with the entire plane empty, we still were assigned seats!

 

[manning]

The 707 was the first american built passenger jet. It went into service in the 1960s. It is no longer flown by us carriers. If you want to see one go to an air force base. They fly it as a kc-135 fuel tanker. It is a four engine jet.

 

[localdriver]

A great aircraft. If your interested, here's what they are about.

http://www.aviation-history.com/boeing/707.html