Load Chart App
The Kavanagh Load Chart App is the essential tool for hot air balloon pilots, providing quick and accurate lift calculations.
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Built specifically for Kavanagh Balloons but compatible with other manufacturers, this app can maintain a list of your favourite balloons and their weight configurations.
Customisation is key and while the app supports over 35 models from Kavanagh Balloons, custom balloons and fuel tank details may be added.
Data can also be backed up and restored at a later date if needed.
WARNING
While all care has been taken with the development and testing of this application, the Aircraft flight manual remains the only approved source for loading and lift calculations.
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It is not and may never be approved as an alternate to the Kavanagh Balloons Flight Manual section 5 and will never be approved for other manufacturers.
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All data in the application is stored locally on your device. For more information on Privacy, please read our Application Privacy Policy here
Overview and navigation
When the application opens the last page in use will open.
Navigate through the application using the navbar at the bottom of the screen.
Lift is the main page for lift calculations.
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Balloons is where you can set up your balloons including weights and a photo.
Settings is where you can set up the units, fuel tank options and default values for pilot weight and envelope temperature.​
Settings Tab
The app can be configured to use your preferred units and will seamlessly convert and display them as required.
All data stored in base units of Feet, Celsius, Kg & ft³â€‹
Conversion happens at UI level when displaying values.
When changing units, values are converted and stored back in base units.
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Pilot Weight
It is assumed you are using this app for personal calculations and as such the pilot weight will be your weight with any other equipment you carry on every flight.
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For accurate calculations remember to include your flight bag and other electronics in the weight.
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Envelope Temp
This is the internal balloon temperature used in the lift calculations. Most manufacturers use 100c so there is adequate performance to allow for a moderate climb or meteorological variations such as an inversion.
If performing calculations for a Kavanagh Balloon then the value must be 100c but otherwise check the details for your balloon.
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Fuel tank options
The app includes the standard selection of tanks supplied by Kavanagh Balloons but custom options may be added as needed.
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When editing the tanks, they can also be turned off from displaying in the options list elsewhere in the app or deleted from the list altogether.
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Balloons Tab
On the balloons page you may enter the data for your favourite balloons
Add a favourite
Click the + button on the bottom right of the screen to start a new favourite.
Details
Add as much detail as you can to make the most of this feature.
The Volume, GCW (Gross Certificated Weight / Max Weight) and empty weight are needed to make the most of the favourite.
A standard fuel configuration can be set in the edit page but this can be changed from the LIFT page too.
Adding a photo is optional. If not a place holder image will be used.
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Empty Weight
In Australia, the empty weight of the balloon includes the envelope, basket, load frame and burner as well as any other fixed equipment.
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Fuel tanks and fuel are not part of the empty weight as their configuration can be changed from flight to flight.
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To keep things simple we have set this up to be a single number entry rather than tracking individual component weights. Let us know if component level weights is a necessary feature and we will consider it.
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This may vary for other regions or countries so if this way of working is not appropriate for you then please reach out and we will see if alternate options are possible.
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Photos
Best practice is to crop a photo of your balloon to a square image and mark it as a favourite in Google Photos so it is easy to find when adding in the app.
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Use
To use one of your favourites simply click on the card for that balloon and the LIFT tab will open with you balloon details ready to go.
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Lift Tab
The Lift page is what we are really here for.
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The lift page has two options - Detailed view for a favourite balloon or a quick calculation mode to quickly compare gross lift values.
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Quick Calculations
Quick calculations are great to quickly see the difference in lift between different size balloons.
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From the balloons page, select the calculator icon at the bottom left of the screen. You will be taken to the Lift page in Quick calculations mode.
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Select a model from the list of Kavanagh Balloons, set the ambient temperature then launch and maximum altitude values and you will get the Gross lift result.
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If the gross lift exceeds the Gross Certificated Weight for that model (Max Weight) then you will get a warning showing you the GCW value.
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To check any volume of balloon, click the edit icon in the model card and manually enter the volume of the balloon required to see the results.
Favourite balloon lift results
With all the details set for your favourite balloons you can quickly get a full loading calculation. For this to work properly, the empty weight of the balloon needs to be entered in the balloon configuration.
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From the balloons page, select the balloon you wish to view and you will be taken to the lift page in favourites mode.
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​Set the values for ambient temperature, launch and maximum altitude for the planned flight.
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Click on the fuel icon if you need to adjust your fuel weights. Select the number of each size tank and the weight of the full tank will be added to the system weight.
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Click on the passenger icon to edit the total passenger weights. Alternately, leave this at zero to see how much spare weight you have for passengers.
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The pilot weight is included in the calculations and is set on the settings page.
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The results card has a little more detail than the Quick calculations.
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Gross lift will be the total amount of lift available for this balloon size.
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Free Lift will be the Gross lift - System weight. Some people refer to this as under load and it is basically how much extra the balloon could lift.
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Free Load will be calculated and displayed if the CGW (Gross Certificated Weight / Max Weight) of the balloon model is less than the Gross Lift. This is the amount of weight you can add to the system before you reach the GCW for that balloon.
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Typically, the Free Load value will only show up at very low ambient temperatures and will be accompanied by the GCW limit warning and value for that balloon.
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Fuel configuration and passenger weights persist with each balloon so the values a retained for the next time you use that balloon.
Backup &
Restore
From the settings page all of your data can be backed up and restored at a later date.
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Backup - the following is backed up
All of your favourite balloon data and photos
Units settings and preferences
Fuel tank options
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The backup file is a zip file saved to the Download folder on your device with the name LoadChart_Backup_$timestamp where the time stamp is YYYMMDD_HHMMSS format.
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Restore
Restoring a backup will show you a list of recent backup files as well as the option to manually browse for a backup file.
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When restoring from a backup you have three options;
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Add to existing balloons - will add any balloons not already in your favourites list without changing any already there
Update existing balloons - will add any balloons not already in your favourites list and will restore the details of any already there
Clear all and replace - as is says on the tin, all favourites will be removed and replaced with the details in the backup file.
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Fuel tank options are totally replaced from the backup in all cases with no filtering or options.
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Android only
Currently this app is only available on Android devices and for download through Google Play
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https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.com.kavanaghballoonsloadchart&pcampaignid=web_share
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Why Android only?
The short answer is none of our team own an iPhone. It is nearly impossible to develop for a device and ecosystem you are not part of.
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As a free app we can't currently justify the investment to get into the Apple ecosystem. One day it may happen but there is other work to do before then.
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