Can I make a request for the Skydemon team to completely re-design the W & B setup. It is obvious that more members are having problems with this than any other subject. Those of us who are not mathematically minded (me) are not getting to grips with this and are putting it to one side. I fly a four seat aircraft but usually with only two onboard, so I can leave the W&B as it will not be an issue. Once I go for three or four onboard then W&B has to done. I do it on a printed form with a calculator to do the numbers. It would be great if SD could be configured easily to have an easy visual on the W&B for a particular trip. This a great program but I feel the W & B setup is lacking in simplicty.

Tim

I'm one of those that struggled with W&B until one day, the penny dropped, so I have enormous sympathy with those that do have problems with it, and having given much thought as to how the process might be simplified, I think I may have come up with a solution, which borrows something from Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Desk Top Publishing (DTP).

I may be completely wide of the mark here, and you may shoot me down in flames, but 'nothing ventured, nothing gained', as the saying goes!

So, basically, I envisage a 'point & click' process. Imagine your computer screen as a blank sheet of graph paper and the mouse cursor as a cross, and somewhere along the bottom of the screen would be a live readout of the cursor co-ordinates, in the form of 'Lever Arm, Weight' which updates in real time as the cursor is moved around.

Now, move the cursor to the point on screen where the readout coincides with the first 'Lever Arm, Weight' co-ordinate and left click the mouse. This defines the point of origin of the W&B polygon. Then move the cursor to the point on screen where the readout coincides with the next 'Lever Arm, Weight' co-ordinate and left click the mouse. This defines the second point of the polygon, and a line is drawn between the two points. Continue in this fashion until the polygon is complete.

It should not matter too much if these points are not absolutely spot on initially, because on completion of the polygon, there should be an opportunity to edit and 'fine tune' it (see below).

The polygon having been completed, the points on the polygon should be individually selectable by double clicking on them, so that they can be moved by the mouse for editing purposes. There should also be an option to move (edit) each point by holding down the Shift, Ctrl or Alt key (developer's choice here) and use the keyboard arrow keys for fine tuning, a pixel at a time. Or maybe at this juncture, there could even be an option to edit the co-ordinate readout directly, press Enter and have the point on the polygon move accordingly.

Now, as I said above, I may be completely wide of the mark here, but having had limited CAD experience and quite extensive DTP experience, where this approach works like a dream, I thought this idea might provide a basis for further thought/discussion.


Mike
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