DC8 flight crew experiences a tail strike on takeoff. It is later determined that the cargo weights ...

Attributes
ACN	961644
Time
Date	201107
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZZ.Airport
State Reference	FO
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	DC-8 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 17 Flight Crew Total 10000 Flight Crew Type 2000
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 60 Flight Crew Total 3300 Flight Crew Type 60
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Weight And Balance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft

Narrative:

I had a tail skid strike on takeoff. Aircraft and aircraft systems operating normally; continued to destination after calling operations to ok the inspection at destination. After thinking it over I find out that my first officer has used pounds in stead of kilograms for the weight and balance form; something that I did not notice at the time. The load sheet handed to us did not specify if it was in KG or pounds. We had only 12 positions and the pallets were not bulky so it did not occur to me that he had not used KG. Once getting on the airplane I was constantly interrupted to get the fuel; pay landing fees; get the appropriate papers that were missing and I was going back and forth to operations to fix things. This job should be handled by our operations and not by the crew member; also this day we did not have a load master on board with us. I know it is my responsibility as a captain to have checked the numbers more closely I am just saying that letting the captain do all this extra work in stead of concentrating solely on his flight is not safe.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: DC8 flight crew experiences a tail strike on takeoff. It is later determined that the cargo weights were in kilograms rather than pounds; making the aircraft 35;000 LBS heavier than calculated.

Narrative: I had a tail skid strike on takeoff. Aircraft and aircraft systems operating normally; continued to destination after calling operations to ok the inspection at destination. After thinking it over I find out that my First Officer has used pounds in stead of kilograms for the weight and balance form; something that I did not notice at the time. The load sheet handed to us did not specify if it was in KG or LBS. We had only 12 positions and the pallets were not bulky so it did not occur to me that he had not used KG. Once getting on the airplane I was constantly interrupted to get the fuel; pay landing fees; get the appropriate papers that were missing and I was going back and forth to operations to fix things. This job should be handled by our operations and not by the crew member; also this day we did not have a load master on board with us. I know it is my responsibility as a Captain to have checked the numbers more closely I am just saying that letting the Captain do all this extra work in stead of concentrating solely on his flight is not safe.

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.

DC8 flight crew experiences a tail strike on takeoff. It is later determined that the cargo weights were in kilograms rather than pounds; making the aircraft 35;000 pounds heavier than calculated.