Now to plan B…flight already cancelled!!!

 

Yeah I'm wondering the same. Didn't they close the vacancy bid 10 days ago? I wonder if they're waiting to see how well the class of 9 that just finished ground school is doing.

 

Story time. PHL-GSO (popular for Republic guys now) full boat with a jump, tankering, and pax brought a ton of bags. Could not bring enough ballast to accommodate jumper due to landing weight. I tried to explain to the CA that lowering the fuel just a couple hundred pounds could allow us to carry enough ballast (drop fuel weight, add ballast weight). He wouldn't allow it because fuel doesn't affect the CG, because it's in the center. I told him yes I know that and tried to explain my plan again. "Son don't you understand fuel doesn't affect the CG? No we can't do it".. Jumper denied.

 

I've been told no upgrades over the summer. Can't afford to take FOs offline to upgrade during summer months. Also told the CA attrition is not as much as they thought would be. Been told more CAs have to leave in order to run upgrade classes. Three left last month. Not sure how many have left in June so far.

 

The reason why in a nutshell without getting into a ground school lesson that the 200 may become weight restricted it's because of its low max landing weight. The 200 has a max landing weight of 47k while also having the capacity to carry a huge payload for that type of aircraft. This means that we are weight restricted for take off due to our landing weight at our destination. Lots of times our max flight plan take off weight is way below out actuall structure max weight for take off. For example, the CRJ 700 is hardly ever weight restricted because it can land at a higher weight (67k). So, on a flight from DC to PHL , it can carry a full payload of people and bags and fuel for an alternate and still land within its 67k limit. But! That plane can carry a lot! Of fuel, if I remember right it's close to over 20k lbs. so ! If that plane was initially fueled for a flight DC to MCI with alternate fuel and suddenly it was swapped into a DC to PHL flight then the over fuel would cause it to become weight restricted unless they de-fuel it. Btw we also (CRJ200) have a ballast limit! There are things you can do to make it work "sometimes" like counting kids, or burning off fuel. But, if the fuel burn off required to get the jump onboard is a big number then it would not be practical and this is illegal to begin with.

 

I fly CRJs, that's why I mentioned the heaviest I've taken off weight in a 200 was 1500lbs and I'm curious if anyone has taken off at max T/O and what were the cities pairs? I don't assume often but I would assume anyone that operates CRJs is familiar with max landing weight restrictions.

 

That's when I would take out a piece of paper and draw a nice little picture.

 

I'm used to working some good magic to get people on. Legal magic of course, including putting our own bags in the back when the station has no ballast. Pretty frustrating not being "allowed" to make it work because the guy in charge doesn't understand how a seesaw works.

 

The only times I have kicked a jumpseater off were when an outstation gave all their ballast to another flight when we needed 400 lbs or something more than just two crew bags. I wasn't going to fly around out of CG.

The other we were swapped into a plane that was way overfueled and we would have had to sit for an hour burning fuel before we could take off, making the 50 pax late for their connections at the hub we were going to. That would have been a tough one to explain just to get a jumpseater on, especially since it was the first flight of the day.

The numbers can be massaged without breaking rules, but there are some things that make it impossible. Our little ACARS box knows if we land over 47000, and I don't feel like dancing on the carpet to get someone to work. I commute too and have been booted, its all part of the game.

 

Answer is easy. Takeoff, climb/cruise etc with spoliers out. Its a crap ride but you'll burn off the fuel to get there under landing weight.