Narrative:

I was the first officer. The captain completed the weight and balance paperwork at the gate prior to our departure as is the normal procedure at our airline. He handed out the paperwork and we closed the door and departed without incident. Once airborne; the captain went over the paperwork again to check for errors in his calculations. Upon reaching the landing weight calculation; he realized that he'd made a math error in the projected landing weight. We departed at approximately 69;000 lbs with a 7;000 lb burn to our destination; that should have put us at approximately 62;000 lbs for landing; well under the landing weight limit of 67;000 lbs for our aircraft. However; due to his math error; the paperwork showed us landing at approximately 71;000 lbs; well in excess of our 67;000 lb landing weight limit. The captain is a 'high mins' captain at his first airline flying job. I believe the 'new' captain; who was just released to the line only days ago; was somewhat nervous and still finding his footing sitting in the left seat. While his flying was sound; his mannerisms seemed like he was nervous. I've been flying for 15 plus years for a living and I've seen this before. Most new captains at their first left seat job are like this for a few months until they get comfortable. Once they sort out what's important and what's not; they are okay. If the captain had slowed down and been more concerned with getting it right instead of getting out on time; I don't believe this would have happened. I flew one other leg with this same captain the night before to our departure airport and sensed this nervousness. As I read through the checklists; I purposely slowed the pace down to give us a chance to catch our breath and get 'centered' again on the task at hand.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CRJ-700 First Officer reported that the Captain; who had just finished his upgrade training; was nervous and in his unease made a weight and balance error which was corrected in flight before landing.

Narrative: I was the First Officer. The Captain completed the weight and balance paperwork at the gate prior to our departure as is the normal procedure at our airline. He handed out the paperwork and we closed the door and departed without incident. Once airborne; the Captain went over the paperwork again to check for errors in his calculations. Upon reaching the landing weight calculation; he realized that he'd made a math error in the projected landing weight. We departed at approximately 69;000 lbs with a 7;000 lb burn to our destination; that should have put us at approximately 62;000 lbs for landing; well under the landing weight limit of 67;000 lbs for our aircraft. However; due to his math error; the paperwork showed us landing at approximately 71;000 lbs; well in excess of our 67;000 lb landing weight limit. The Captain is a 'High Mins' Captain at his first airline flying job. I believe the 'new' Captain; who was just released to the line only days ago; was somewhat nervous and still finding his footing sitting in the left seat. While his flying was sound; his mannerisms seemed like he was nervous. I've been flying for 15 plus years for a living and I've seen this before. Most new Captains at their first left seat job are like this for a few months until they get comfortable. Once they sort out what's important and what's not; they are okay. If the Captain had slowed down and been more concerned with getting it right instead of getting out on time; I don't believe this would have happened. I flew one other leg with this same Captain the night before to our departure airport and sensed this nervousness. As I read through the checklists; I purposely slowed the pace down to give us a chance to catch our breath and get 'centered' again on the task at hand.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.