A320
Other / Unknown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance
Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors; Procedure
On takeoff at rotation speed (after decision speed V1) it took a very extreme stick movement to get the aircraft to rotate. This also consumed approximately 1;000 extra feet of runway. After lift off; the aircraft trimmed a large amount from the original setting. I assumed that this was due to misloading since we set the proper trim. After 25 minutes from pushback (in flight) we received a message from Operations that the Weight and Balance (W/B) was off by 40 bags in the front bin. Had this happened at a short runway airport this might have resulted in an accident! Why did it take that long for Operations to communicate the problem? Do these out stations have any idea how to get hold of the aircraft during taxi (call the Tower)? Does the training for the outsourced stations express how dangerous a W/B mistake can be? Why did it take so long for them to admit the mistake?
A320 Captain used an abnormal amount of aft stick to get the aircraft to rotate during takeoff. Once airborne it is determined that the aircraft has auto trimmed to a substantially different setting from the takeoff setting. A message is received from the company indicating that 40 bags were loaded in the forward bin but not accounted for in the weight and balance.