Helicopter
Flight Crew Commercial
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance
Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors; Manuals
In the course of creating comparative weight and balance spreadsheets to determine the effect of the SX-5 on center of gravity (CG); I noticed that the CG of the aircraft moved aft when the SX-5 nightsun was deducted. This was obviously erroneous so I examined the weight and balance certifications and noticed that the arm was incorrectly entered as 19 instead of 190; leading to an incorrect moment. This resulted in our base flying an aircraft with incorrect W&B calculations since it has arrived. This error was undetectable in the normal course of pilot or lead pilot duties. This was a failure of Quality Assurance (QA) to execute their job properly.
Helicopter pilot reports discovering that the weight and balance charts for his company helicopter; are using an incorrect moment arm for the search light mounted on tail of the helicopter.