Finland's national carrier Finnair is asking passengers to be weighed voluntarily and anonymously so that it can update their standard weight figures.

Almost everything that gets onto a commercial plane — fuel, checked-in baggage, cargo and meals — is weighed. For passengers and their cabin bags, most airlines use average data.

But Finland’s national carrier Finnair said Friday that it started asking passengers this week voluntarily and anonymously hop onto a scale with their hand luggage at the country’s main airport in Helsinki, the airline said Friday. The aim is to get their own figures.

“We will need data for both winter season and for summer season — in winter season people typically have heavier clothing, which impacts weights,” Finnair spokeswoman Päivyt Tallqvist told The Associated Press, adding that the survey would last until May.

Passengers boarding onto European and long-haul flights won’t be “penalized for their weight,” and “the numbers are kept discreet, away from prying eyes,” she added.

  • Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world
    0·
    7 months ago

    It is my pleasure this is what I like about lemmy, every so often you get to learn something new. I love finding out something I didn’t know before.

    I find that very interesting that you think that wind loading could be correct for. I would have that though that would have been impossible. It is interesting to know how things advance.

    Keep reading if you want to know more about WOW switchers. Avionics/flight system is not my area but I do know a little about it. The WOW switch is used of course to tell the aircraft it is on the ground. This is used by both the flight computer and the transponder.

    The transportation uses the WOW and speed to switch between in-flight or on the ground. Something that ATC uses to help with aid in approach/departure clearances especially if they can’t see the runways in the tower.

    It is used by the flight computer in a lot of different ways the main one is for CAT III landing where the auto pilot takes the plane all the way down to landing and rollout. Deploying things like auto brakes, speed brakes, thrust reversers, etc. It can also enable/disable some systems so the pilots can’t accidentally hit a button at the wrong time.

    One of the defining features of the WOW system is that it needs to have a positive signal for 2ish seconds in case of bounce on landing. As you could imagine very bad things could happen if the aircraft thinks it is somewhere it isn’t.

    Happy exploring.