Products

LodeStone

Weight and Balance System

Introduction and Overview

LodeStone is the new advanced aircraft Weight and Balance system from Damarel Systems. Designed with ease of use in mind, Lodestone will automatically perform all the airline weight and balance calculations necessary to produce the required documentation for the loaders and the flight crew.

LodeStone does away with time consuming manual processes to quickly and accurately produce the following documentation:

• Loading Instruction (IATA AHM 514)
• Load Sheet (AHM 517)
• Load Message (LDM - AHM 583)
• Container/Pallet Distribution Message (CPM-AHM587)
• Unit Load Device Control Message (UCM-AHM424)

Designed for use on commercial passenger flights, LodeStone has a bulk loading capability for narrow bodied aircraft and a containerised mode for wide bodied aircraft.

Main Benefits

Introducing the LodeStone system to the operation provides many benefits, including:

• Cost LodeStone is one of the most cost effective airline weight and balance solutions available. With a range of installation options and pricing plans the perfect tailored solution can be found for each client.
• Ease Of Use Use of a modern Graphical User Interface greatly simplifies the task of the Load Controller. Simple to learn and easy to operate, LodeStone provides the controller with all the tools required for the job.
• Accuracy With prompted entry and immediate data validation, LodeStone reduces the time and effort required to produce an accurate load sheet. When integrated with L-DCS, Damarel's Departure Control System, the need for manual re-keying of data is completely removed.

Advantages over Traditional Host Based Systems

By using a fully graphical weight and balance interface, LodeStone is both more intuitive and informative to the user, making it simpler and quicker to learn.

All data entered by the user is validated to check that it is reasonable and within bounds. The use of visual prompts to warn of potential errors, such as out of trim conditions, means problems are noticed and rectified immediately.

The calculated weight and balance figures are revised on the screen immediately anything changes with the check-in of the flight. Therefore the effect on the aircraft trim of checking-in additional passengers or of placing baggage in a specific compartment can be seen as soon as the data is entered.

Full Integration with Damarel's L-DCS

LodeStone weight and balance is fully and seamlessly integrated with Damarel's Departure Control System L-DCS. An automatic real-time transfer takes place of all relevant L-DCS data to LodeStone such that load sheet production is always done using the most up to date information from check-in. No manual re-keying is necessary, ensuring the information is accurate and timely.

As a result load sheets can be produced far faster than was previously possible.

A full manual override capability is provided if the load controller wishes to change any information from L-DCS before producing a load sheet.

Features

LodeStone specifically targets the weight and balance requirements of the charter operation, and features fully functional single-sector load planning.

For increased accuracy, seat row trim calculations are performed taking the individual passenger type (MFCI) breakdown into account, whilst for baggage and freight LodeStone applies compartment trim logic.

Weight and balance can be done for transit flights in addition to flights originating from the station of operation.

It is important to the operator that the right data is produced at the right location - when it is needed. LodeStone allows the production of load sheets directly to the gate from the load controller's own workstation.

Either standalone or integrated, LodeStone effortlessly automates an extremely important part of the aircraft handling process.

Maintenance of Semi-Permanent Data

LodeStone can be supplied with a number of maintenance options, depending on the client requirements:

• Damarel can set up and maintain all AHM 050 data for the aircraft.
• Damarel can set up the AHM 050 data and the client can perform routine maintenance.
• The client can both set up and maintain the data.

Technical

LodeStone is a fully web-enabled Weight and Balance application, operated via a standard Microsoft® Browser (Internet Explorer 5.5 or above). This technology allows for both local installations and distributed rollouts across corporate WANs or even the Internet.

For security and reliability, an industry standard Oracle® database is used to store all data, with access enabled via a Microsoft® IIS server.

Currently Supported Airlines

LodeStone is currently certified for use with the following airlines, with more being added continually: