G'day folks,

I'm a ramp agent for a contractor that performs duties for Rex Saab 340s and QantasLink Dash 8's and absolutely love it.

On the Q400s, QLink has the aft hold sectioned off into compartment 41 and 42 using netting. At the front of the aircraft is hold 11, which is not allowed to be used without special permission from load control and only if absolutely necessary. However, I've seen Q400s operating in different countries without netting in the aft hold and just operating as a singular compartment. How does this affect the performance of the aircraft/loading method? At QLink, we have to follow strict load control plans that involve putting certain bags in either 41 or 42. On the 300s we have compartment 43 as well.

At times we'll have 3 bags in compartment 42 and 57 in 41 or vice versa. Sometimes everything is put in the one compartment.

This is just a random observation. I understand each part of the world and each airline has its own operating requirements but if anyone could pitch in it would certainly answer a long time question!

According to my Q400 maintenance training manuals, the lower (FWD) floor has a load rating of 125lbs/sq.ft., or a total of 3500 lbs while the upper (AFT) floor has a load rating of 75 lbs/sq.ft., for a total of 1000 lbs in that section. However, it does say that the max for the entire compartment is 3500 lbs, so, in theory it could all be loaded in the FWD section of the cargo.

I would say the answer to your question lies in weight and balance, the aft end of that cargo compartment is a long way from the center of gravity. Maybe sometime you could see if you can make some correlation between the cargo loading to the number of passengers and where they are seated. I would expect the more passengers fwd of the wing, the further aft you would be loading the bags. Disclaimer here, I'm neither a pilot or load planner, so that's just my somewhat educated guess.

I occasionally worked a US Regional's Q400s at my operation; we were cross trained on all aircraf (only regional aircraft) we worked, but I never spent much time working the gates/zones that saw the Qs. It was over 7 years ago so I'll try and remember this correctly:

Q400 (I believe these were some kind of IGW birds), no netting used except that which separates the baggage in the rear compartment from the compartment door.
- Standard bags & Carryons are 30lbs, Heavy bags are 60lbs, and Cargo/AOG is as its weight was marked on the shipment.

FWD Compartment, on F/O side aft of flightdeck (Your Hold 11?) had a Max Weight of 910lbs (30 Std bags/Carryons), only used for carryons if needed for W&B (told to us by Flight Crew) or the Aft compartment was full (volume or weight). I think we tried to avoid using this compartment as it was accessable from the cabin and the flight crews would put their rollaboards here.

AFT Compartment was split into two areas: Rear (the shelf, Your Hold 42?) and Forward (Your Hold 41?). The total max weight of the compartment was 3500lbs
- The shelf was limited to 1000lbs (33std bags) and was to be loaded first. SOP was if you couldn't max it out with bags or carryons then everything you had went in this area. If we had large loads, the best of us tried to get as close to max volume as we could within the weight limit.
- The forward floor was where the remainder of the weight (2500lbs, 83std bags) allowed in the total compartment went. And aminals regardless if the rear shelf was weight maxed or not.

For all of the airplanes we worked: the floor weight limit never seem to bring any issues, but we also never did any calculations involving it, and our only training was the computer recurrent saying the floor load limit is ZZZ lbs/sqft and that it was placarded in the airplane. We just had to know the few special procedures for each a/c type and how to do the math with the placarded weight.

All of our loading/stacking was done by the rampers working the flights, there was no special direction from a 'Lead' or 'Load Control'. The only thing Operations (people in a room who coordinated gates, services, aircraft swaps, and inquired about delays) did was tell us a predicted bag limit if the flight was to be weight restricted, then we had our SOP as to which bags went and which stayed. If the flight crew told us to move bags for weight and balance we did. On weight limited flights if the flight crew allowed us to add more bags we did, and if they told us to remove them we did. If you worked with people who knew how to stack, a LOT of baggage could go in the holds of those Qs (and the other planes too).

I've worked with Q400s pretty regularly. We combine the aft into one compartment, but the shelf has a 1000lb limit that we need to make sure we keep track of and not go over. My airline emphasizes level loading and we stack the pit evenly. The forward pit (which has a door to access from the cabin side) is used for crew bags and any overflow carry-outs during a bulk-out. We do not have the optional extra galley, and nothing is ever pre-planned in the fwd, only the aft pit. Our w&b is handled on the backend, away from the pilots, and we have a bearing weight calculator that we can use if we are unsure about heavy items.

TL;DR Easiest plane to ever load, tons of fun, 10/10 would recommend.