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Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,705 posts, read 58,031,425 times
Reputation: 46172
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My only 2 flights on Spirit "hobo" Airlines (thx, I like that name)
They jammed everyone far rear and the front of aircraft (frt of the wings) had 2 people (who paid for an upgrade). The rest of us cattle were told to STAY seated in our packed full assigned seats or the plane would fall-from-the-sky due to load balance issues
as an engineer, this concerned me (thinking that it would be preferred to have the load BALANCED or forward the wings.)
on the return, they let us change seats about mid route, and as expected... no crisis. (probably far less fuel used)
If the pilot spoke some english I would have even been more re-assured.
I will keep flying SWA (on a SWA flight at the moment / w/ wifi) No need to jam stuff in overhead bins as bags fly free
On Spirit, most were traveling Hobo mode. No carry-on or checked bags. just 4 sets of clothes on each BODY. (kinda cramped in those FULL rows, 16-24)
I will take Spirit when on company travel (double life insurance )
They fly A319s, 320s and 321s. Usually aircraft of that size aren't very sensitive to w/b issues, unlike some of the smaller turboprop and bizjet sized aircraft that might require tight seating restrictions. Even then, out of the turboprops and RJs I flew I can't think of a single time in which we wanted everyone to stay seated aft of the wings. Usually spread throughout the seating zones is best. The FA's normally note the seating arrangement and pass it on to pilots who either calculate the wb themselves or pass the info to dispatch for them to do. If people move around, they have to recount it and the info recalculated to ensure within limits. I bet the FA's told you stay put simply because they didn't want to recount. Just my guess. In either case, I agree they should have let you spread out just in the name of comfort and customer service..but this is Spirit.
As an aside, with the cg toward the aft limits, fuel burn goes down slightly.
How many passengers were on the plane? ...or, what percentage of the seats were occupied?
If all the seats were full behind the wings and there were only 2 passengers in front of the wing, something was seriously wrong. First of all, that is not how seats are assigned. Second, that would (should) have raised red flags with everyone as it is uncommon.
Only possible explanation is that there was a lot of very heavy cargo in the forward cargo compartment. Perhaps the aft cargo compartment door was inoperative and all the cargo had to be loaded in the forward cargo compartment?
The reason you have to stay in your seats is because the pilots must set the horizontal stabilizer (horizontal surface of tail) prior to takeoff to insure the plane lifts off the ground safely. Once the plane is in the air, it will automatically retrim (within reasonable limits).
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,705 posts, read 58,031,425 times
Reputation: 46172
not sure of cargo if any 1st flight in AM (definately no one checks heavy bags on Spirit, and for this short 1400 mile hop, most of us were Hobo (no bags). Definately the Greyhound of air passenger transport. (and some of the clientele were similar to the paroles and boad jumpers you will find on Greyhound).
As mentioned the plane was less than 1/2 full passenger wise. Only the elite that pay for assigned seats get the frt. That's ok, us swine are more probable to survive in the rear. The outbound flight crew was very grumpy due to early morning departure, who knows when they got in the day before. Thus they kept us all firmly seated for 2 + hrs in the air.
Return crew was nice and let us change seats about 1/2 way into the flight.
I will have to see about the Cargo income from Spirit financials. I will guess very small since a new carrier.
They make little if any income from cargo. However, they may have been shipping airplane parts or company material from one airport to another. Maybe they were starting a new destination and needed some equipment in place? Do you recall the flight number (or origin, destination and time) and date?
On the A320, the CG position has negligible effect on the fuel consumption. It was designed so that the CG is very close to the center of lift, therefore there is very little downward elevator/stabilizer force needed. So moving the CG aft doesn't help much.
Ideally you would want both the wing and tail to generate positive (upward) lift instead of the wing generating positive lift and the tail generating negative (downward) lift.
Interesting. Who knows then it could've been as stupid as the crew trying to have a little fun playing tricks on the passengers.
Haha! Well, the crew doesn't assign the seats, but yeah, that would be "fun" (). Or maybe assigning all the passengers the same seat and then watching from the galley to see how things play out.
The seats are assigned by computer (and we know these never screw up, right? ), starting over the wing then moving forward and back. The seats at the back are last to go. If the plane is nearly full and no one is sitting in front, some lucky passenger(s) will get to move up to the front seats. In other words, the plane does not have a very far forward CG to begin with, and a far aft CG like described by the OP would be very unusual and prompt some disconcertment by the ticket agents, gate agents, flight attendants, pilots, dispatchers, computerized weight & balance, etc.
not sure of cargo if any 1st flight in AM (definately no one checks heavy bags on Spirit, and for this short 1400 mile hop, most of us were Hobo (no bags). Definately the Greyhound of air passenger transport. (and some of the clientele were similar to the paroles and boad jumpers you will find on Greyhound).
As mentioned the plane was less than 1/2 full passenger wise. Only the elite that pay for assigned seats get the frt. That's ok, us swine are more probable to survive in the rear. The outbound flight crew was very grumpy due to early morning departure, who knows when they got in the day before. Thus they kept us all firmly seated for 2 + hrs in the air.
Return crew was nice and let us change seats about 1/2 way into the flight.
I will have to see about the Cargo income from Spirit financials. I will guess very small since a new carrier.
You experience seems very odd. Aircraft of that size almost never have wieght and balance issues. It usually takes at least a CRJ-200 or smaller to have serious weight and balance issues. Also Spirit is certainly not a new airline they been flying for decades and have been a fairly large airline for the past 10 years or so. They are not a big cargo airline though like American or Delta may be. Wonder why they told you guys it was weight and balance. I guess maybe they had something very heavy in the cargo hold.
Anyway Spirit is a very safe airline and clearly your flight had no problems.
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)
). Or maybe assigning all the passengers the same seat and then watching from the galley to see how things play out. 
), starting over the wing then moving forward and back. The seats at the back are last to go. If the plane is nearly full and no one is sitting in front, some lucky passenger(s) will get to move up to the front seats. In other words, the plane does not have a very far forward CG to begin with, and a far aft CG like described by the OP would be very unusual and prompt some disconcertment by the ticket agents, gate agents, flight attendants, pilots, dispatchers, computerized weight & balance, etc.
