What's load manifest and INS?

[Mavmb]

So what is a load manifest? Is that pretty much a weight and balance for the airlines? Also, what is this INS (Inertial Navigation System) is that a name for all the navigation equipment?

[applepwnz]

Now I don't fully understand INS as it is a very complicated system, but I believe it works kind of like this:

There's some sort of gyroscope I believe, and it tracks the movement of the aircraft (altitude, airspeed and direction.) By putting a known location into the INS system, one can use the INS system as a navigation system free from GPS, VOR, NDB, etc... The biggest disadvantage is that if in mid flight the INS system becomes misaligned, from that point on it is unreliable until it can be aligned again.

[kellwolf]

Load manifest can vary from airline to airline as far as I know. The ones I've ramped for basically had what was called a "load sheet" that had freight and mail, the weight and location of each, and then a bag count for the individual bins. At SWA, the operations agent would take the standard weights for bags and passengers, then use those numbers along with the freight and mail weights in order to get a weight and balance. At XJT, the pilots would input the info into the computer, and the computer does the weight and balance.

[JHines]

An inertial nav system uses accelerometers to sense acceleration in X-, Y- , and Z-axes. The acceleration can be integrated to determine velocity and that can be integrated to determine displacement (distance).

Early INS systems mounted the accelerometers on a gyro-stabilized platform (stable platform) that would remain level independent of aircraft orientation, so the accelerometers were directly measuring displacements relative to the earth.

Newer systems have become sophisticated enough that they can use "strap-down" sensors that measure acceleration without having to be mounted on a stable platform.