Help understanding cargo loading/weight mechanics please

[hjp766]

Evening, a potentially odd question but any help appreciated.

Having finally taken the plunge and survived a while in my first long game I am tentatively trying to do forward planning and am trying to understand how cargo is treated in AWS.

My question effectively boils down to whether AWS handles all cargo purely by weight or also volumetrically?

If the earlier some conversions make less sense, if the latter they make a whole heap of sense.

I ask as with my r/w head on (background in logistics and distribution and currently flying 330 p2f worldwide) a conversion based solely on a model using weight only will not be sensible, but if we can indeed ram an aircarft full volumetrically of light/mid cargo to bulk out a heavy cargo base load then it makes sense.

I ask as having been through all the old guides and the manual and read varying plane details whilst playing inprevious beginner worlds, I am very unsure of the facts.

Thanks in advance.

Ps, if further clarifications needed as to the question  I will try and expand the explanation but it will be long winded.

[Sami]

Both volume and weight are considered. ...a short answer.

https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Routes/Cargo/

[Todorojoz]

Both available weight and space are needed in order to fly cargo in AWS. As an example an aircraft like the DC6B doesn't fly very much cargo even though it can carry an extra 1,460kg of weight. It only has 0.80 cubic meters of space for the cargo, so it can only carry 80 kg of light cargo or 200kg of standard cargo. leaving most of that available weight to waste.

Compare that to the L-1049 Super Constellation that can carry 1,400kg extra weight (less than the DC6B), but it has 8.80 cubic meters of space available so it can carry 880kg of light cargo or all 1,400kg worth of standard cargo.

Both space and weight matters. And if you used less seats in your configuration, or switch to more business seats or higher quality seats, you can open up a limited amount more of space and weight, and allow an AC to carry more cargo.

I hope this answers your question.

[hjp766]

Both volume and weight are considered. ...a short answer.

https://www.airwaysim.com/game/Manual/Routes/Cargo/

Thankyou - this leads to a supplementary question - is the pricing purely weight based or is volumetric pricing also used?

[Maarten Otto]

Can't help you with that one, but a little hint from me: don't mind a short range. I have about 30 Emraer 120's in Cargo config with 21 planned in orders and they are advertised to do only 310 NM, yet I happily put them on 500NM+ flights.

Code Select Expand


CQ315 KCMH - KOKC 07:40 - 10:35 Every day
CQ316 KOKC - KCMH 11:10 - 15:25
Route image: 100, 100
E120, Embraer EMB-120
Assigned to: Embraer EMB-120FC Brasilia, N001AC
Seat config: Y0, C0, F0    -- Pax transport blocked --
Cargo capacity: CL 870 kg, CS 2 040 kg
Route sales results and financial information (average last 7 days)
     Ticket rev   Cargo rev   Fuel cost  Other costs Result
KCMH - KOKC $ 0   $ 7 206      -$ 421 -$ 1 552     $ 5 233
KOKC - KCMH $ 0   $ 8 308      -$ 363 -$ 1 697     $ 6 248


[Sami]

is the pricing purely weight based or is volumetric pricing also used?

Just weight, to keep it simpler.

[hjp766]

Thank you all for your answers. Makes me wholly in favour of an experiment.