Originally Posted by
2StgTurbine
Well rampers are not always the best sources for information on aircraft. I have never worked a flight where we had to leave bags or passengers behind because of weight problems. Only once we had to burn off 60 lbs of fuel before takeoff to accommodate a full load of passengers, bags, a jumpseater, and about 2,000 lbs of extra fuel. So you can either listen to a ramper who has a hard time remembering how many bags can go into the aft baggage compartment and usually fills out the load sheet incorrectly, or you can listen to people who fly the aircraft.
Depending on the station, I'll take the ramper's word any day of the week over the pilot. But I'm biased. I used to load bags for Horizon before getting hired to fly at XJT. Hub rampers suck but most outstation employees are usually way more educated than you think. The majority of our rampers in Boise held bachelor's and master's degrees in technical fields. They were just there part time to get flight benefits or insurance for their families if they ran their own business.
Pilots, especially new hires in the last 6 years, well let's just say C's get degrees seems to have been the motto.
That said. The Q400 is an absolute beast. Usually we wouldn't bulk out the pit unless we were taking over 120 bags. My record in the aft pit was 123 bags and I still had 800lbs of floor weight left to play with if I'd have had the room.