Weight and Balance Calculator – weight and centre of gravity in one minute
Enter pilot, passengers, baggage and fuel – BriefingPal plots the centre of gravity in the CG envelope of your aircraft type and checks takeoff weight, landing weight and zero-fuel weight against the POH limits. For more than 100 types, free and without sign-up.
Weight and balance is the first step of every flight preparation – and the one where mistakes cost the most. A centre of gravity behind the aft limit makes the aircraft unstable; an overweight takeoff lengthens the ground roll and degrades climb performance. BriefingPal does the moment arithmetic for you and shows the result where it belongs: in the envelope diagram from the flight manual.
For every type the station arms (front seats, rear seats, baggage, hat rack, fuel), the basic empty weight with its moment, MTOW, landing weight and the CG range are stored – with the POH or AFM they were taken from. For registrations with stored weighing data, BriefingPal uses the real empty weight of that aircraft instead of the type default.
How it works
- Pick the aircraftEnter a registration or type. Empty weight, empty moment and station arms come from the weighing report or POH.
- Enter the loadingWeight per station in kg or lbs; fuel in US gallons or litres with automatic conversion (AVGAS or Jet A-1).
- Check the resultTakeoff weight, landing weight and CG appear instantly; green ticks or red warnings for MTOW, zero fuel and each envelope point.
- Landing weight from the routeWith a planned route BriefingPal computes trip fuel and from it the landing point in the envelope – including the fuel-burn line.
Example from the app
Example: Piper PA-28-181 Archer II
Pilot and front passenger 160 kg, rear passengers 75 kg, baggage 15 kg, 40 US gallons at takeoff. Result: takeoff weight 1,087 kg (MTOW 1,157 kg, margin 70 kg), CG 2.291 m aft of datum – inside the envelope. Landing weight after 109 kg of trip fuel 1,072 kg at 2.290 m.
What the weight & balance calculator does
The type's CG envelope
Normal, utility or combined categories, forward and aft limits depending on weight, drawn exactly as in the POH.
Three points at a glance
Takeoff, landing and zero-fuel weight are checked at the same time – including the path during the flight.
Units of your choice
kg or lbs, metres or inches, kg·m or lb·in, US gallons or litres – conversion is automatic.
Weighing data per registration
Store empty weight, arm and moment of the actual aircraft; flying clubs capture their whole fleet this way.
Briefing PDF
The W&B table and envelope diagram go into the briefing PDF together with performance, route and weather.
Plausibility checks
Implausible empty CGs and entries beyond station limits (e.g. baggage above the maximum) are flagged.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate aircraft weight and balance?
For each station the weight is multiplied by its arm to obtain the moment. The sum of all moments divided by the total weight gives the centre of gravity (CG). At takeoff, at landing and with zero fuel the CG must stay within the range given in the POH – BriefingPal performs this calculation automatically and plots the points in the envelope.
What data do I need?
Only the loading: the weights of the people and baggage and the fuel quantity. Empty weight, empty moment, station arms and the envelope of the type are stored in BriefingPal; for your own registration the values from the weighing report can be entered.
Does the calculator account for fuel burn?
Yes. With a planned route BriefingPal computes trip fuel and shows the landing point and the zero-fuel point next to the takeoff point in the envelope, connected by the fuel-burn line.
Which aircraft are supported?
More than 100 types and 200 model variants – among them Cessna 152/172/182/206, Piper PA-28 Cherokee/Warrior/Archer/Arrow and PA-32, Cirrus SR20/SR22, Mooney M20, Diamond DA20/DA40/DA42, Beechcraft Bonanza, Robin DR400, Tecnam, Aquila, Pipistrel and many LSA. The full list is under “Aircraft”.
Can I store my own aircraft's data?
Yes. Under “Upload aircraft” a registration can be linked to an existing type and completed with empty weight, arm and moment from the current weighing report – or the POH page can be uploaded as a photo or PDF.
Is the result binding?
No. BriefingPal is a planning aid; the original POH/AFM and the current weighing report remain authoritative. The pilot in command verifies the result before flight.
Popular aircraft types
Weight and Balance Calculator
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