- GA Aircraft Now Supported
This feature adds an additional seat up front with the pilot and has a different cargo/baggage load calculation. Since baggage can't be stowed in the cabin (with 3-4 people), all baggage will go into the hold, limiting the amount that can be carried.
- Concorde Now Supported
Since the Concorde has special balancing requirements, ACLoader will correctly apply balance to it.
- Manual Fuel/Food Load With "Loading Only"
If you don't have a plan to load, or just want "Loading Only", then you can manually enter the fuel load required, and food required per passenger. This allows for correct Aircraft Weight/ZFW calculation. ACLoader also allows you to enter the distance of a flight, then calculates fuel required based on that number.
- Baggage Now Correctly Calculated Into Cargo Load
When baggage weight allowed is more than 25 pounds, ACLoader will take 25 pounds and apply it to the passenger weight. The remaining weight is added into the cargo load.
Now even if there is no cargo, if there's baggage it will be put into the cargo holds and calculated corectly. This also means when you remove cargo if you are overweight, then the baggage isn't removed.
In the above image, the 747-400 has a cargo load maximum of 121,200 pounds. However, with an average Baggage Weight of 71 pounds, 46 pounds times number of seats (382) is added to the actual amount that can be loaded into the cargo holds. The 747-400 above can have 138,772 pounds of cargo/baggage loaded.
This is why the Cargo Loading Fore/Aft numbers above do not equal the Cargo Sold number.
- Cargo Pod Now Available
For aircraft with a Cargo Pod (like the Caravan), ACLoader will load it. For cargo-only aircraft, even if the pod is present, all cargo is calculated and placed into the main cabin. This just speeds up processing.
- Cargo Loading And Distribution
If the cabin length is more than 70 feet, cargo is now automatically loaded to balance the weight to as close to 0 as it can get (except for the Concorde, which s a special case). For users who know there is a tail tank, or users who know that the weight has to be moved fore or aft, one can manually change the cargo load distribution.
For aircraft with a cabin length of 70 feet or less, it is assumed there is only one aft cargo hold and this distribution cannot be done.
This feature was added to more realistically allow weight balance instead of using the unrealistic shifting in the air file (below).
Also, since changing seats sold will effect the CoG position, it will be required to recalculate the cargo loading before writing the file.
- Realistic Cargo Loading Means Realstic Consideration of Cargo Sold
In older versions, cargo was split 3/5 of total cargo for the fore hold, 2/5 aft hold. Cargo hold maximums are now split 50/50, but loaded according to balance.
This is also why the number shown in the Automatic Shift box may not be 0. When one or other cargo hold is full, the remaining cargo/baggage has to be loaded into the other hold. This is useful to limit the amount of cargo this particular flight/aircraft can carry. This is how it's done in the real world - cargo is shifted for balance. However, if there is too much cargo and weight can't be balanced, cargo has to be removed until there is a balance.
- Manual Setting of Aircraft Layout and Galleys
Manual selection of which galleys are present (Fore, Mid-Fore, Mid-Aft, Aft, Food Cooler), and manual entry for aircraft layout for selection of layout map and loading calculation. See the "Editing Page / Extra Aircraft Info" image above.
- Galleys and Seats Correctly Spaced And Placed
When seating is placed, where the seats go now takes into consideration where the galleys are located. Seats are also calculated to be placed within the cabin length less galleys. This was not done correctly before.
- Manual and Automatic Weight Shift
Even though unrealistic, this feature still remains for air file corrections.
After generating a load, a slider can be moved, or a number entered into the shift box. ACLoader will automatically apply the Empty Weight CoG Position based on balance if cargo load can't do the job, or if there is a special need for a balance correction like with the Concorde. But the user can change the setting.
Calculations are based on a one-foot one-pound basis. The offset is written to the air file as 1/100000 the CoG calculation.
- Weight Shift Changed From Reference Datum Position
In the older versions of ACLoader, the reference_datum_position variable was changed to reflect weight shift. In version 4, this is changed to empty_weight_CG_position so the virtual cockpit view and other references aren't changed.
- Original Air File Referenced
In older versions, ACLoader would just overwrite the aircraft.cfg file with the new values. Version 4 now reads the back-up copy of the aircraft.cfg file it creates when first run on that specific aircraft. It needs to do this to ensure default values are retained when necessary. This is only done for the ref datum point.
Although from version 3.0 on, ACLoader would write an initial back-up file, it was not used for processing until now.
- Restore from Original Air File
You can now restore an aircraft to it's state before you first ran ACLoader on it.
- Total Seats Random Load or Class Random Load
Passenger loading may now be done randomly per total seats available, or on a class-by-class basis. Both minimum and maximum load can be adjusted with either method.
- Export/Import Route Data Records
Now you can share route data. On the Routes Table screen, one click allows you to export a selected route. From the menu you can import a rote record. This makes VA operations that much easier.
- Aircraft Selection by Name When Writing Aircraft.cfg File
Clicking "Write aircraft.cfg File" now displays a pop-up list of all the aircraft in the FS\Aircraft folder (if you have set a path to FS). You can still manually go directly to an aircraft's aircraft.cfg file, but this makes it a lot faster to select an aircraft to modify.
- More!!
There are more features in ACLoader Version 4!
