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5 The Boeing 747 can easily fit up to 110 tonnes of payload across its main deck , which is 150ft long .
6 Take a closer look at the Loading Instruction Report which represents the cargo distribution on all decks inside our Boeing 747-400 Freighter .
7 In most airports , the Auxiliary Power Unit ( APU ) can ’ t be turned on until 20 minutes before departure . Therefore , the cabin can be conditioned by blowing hot or cold air through these yellow tubes .
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or even dangerous goods that require a very delicate treatment during the whole journey .
Therefore , cargo-only flights generally follow not-binding sets of departure and arrival times , especially if they are chartered to deliver nonregular individual cargo . Flights operated by airlines such as FedEx , UPS , or DHL have to deal with slightly more restrictive timings to deliver parcels more efficiently and remain competitive in the market .
Today , however , I will be dispatching a charter flight to Hong Kong International Airport ( HKG ), operated by a Boeing 747-400F which will fly more than 100,000kg ( 110 tons ) of miscellaneous dangerous goods all the way to Southeast Asia .
One hundred metric tons of cargo must never be taken
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lightly . This number only reflects the amount of strict payload this Boeing 747 is carrying to its destination and represents almost 80 % of the maximum allowance for this aircraft . In addition , more than half of the cargo is categorized as ‘ environmentally hazardous substances ’, classified by the IATA with the code RMD . Therefore , the safe operation of the flight is crucially reliant on the correct loading and distribution of the payload along this 747 ’ s cargo hold .
In aviation handling , we commonly make use of the acronym LIR , which stands for Loading Instruction Report . This file is a schematic representation of an aircraft ’ s cargo hold , divided into fixed positions , that indicates how the jet must be loaded in order to fly within its operational weight and balance limits .
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The Boeing 747-400F , one of the most common freighter aircraft , can carry cargo on two different decks : the main one , which would correspond to the passenger cabin in a standard Boeing 747 , and a smaller lower one . The upper deck is actually fully reserved for the flight crew and usually includes the cockpit and a dedicated crew rest area on the back of the hump .
To facilitate an understanding of how the cargo pallets must be loaded , the decks are divided into positions that extend from A1 to T on the main deck , and from 11P to 42P on the lower one . Positions 51 to 54 are reserved for bulk cargo and crew bags , which are stored separately from the rest of the payload . For each position , the load planner assigns a specific cargo pallet along with its gross weight , and must indicate whether that specific load is special or dangerous .
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SAFETY FIRST |
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The loading and securing of cargo on this kind of flight may take up to three hours to complete . In this particular case , however , the risky nature of the cargo causes the entire process to take five hours , and the flight to take off two hours late . |
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Now , one of the reasons that have enabled aviation to become the means of transportation with the fewest fatalities in the world is the prioritization of safety . As a turnaround coordinator , I never allow myself to feel pressured to dispatch a flight on time . In fact , I have been trained to ensure that safety , and not timing , is always prioritized . |
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If a flight departs on time , we derive great satisfaction from knowing that all the handling |