I have been an Avare user for several years but only recently attempted to use the weight and balance function. I entered the required data and the envelope points copying the numbers from my Excel W/B spreadsheet that gives a graphic envelope depiction.

The displayed envelope and current weight CG marker didn't look correct so I checked all the data entries multiple times and found no error. I then set minimum weight for the envelope to zero and could see there was a spurious envelope point at the correct aft CG limit but at zero weight. I checked the envelope specification data pairs again and found no error. There was no point specified at aft CG limit and zero weight.

I deleted the entire envelope specification and then re-entered it. The envelope now displayed correctly and the current aircraft weight/CG was correctly positioned in the envelope.

The only explanation I can come up with is that I "fat fingered" the original envelope entry and had included a non-printing control character which resulted in one of the weight points being interpreted as zero.

My questions for the developers - Are invalid characters detected in user data entries? If not, should data entries with invalid characters result in a warning rather than attempting to process the data and displaying misleading results.

Thanks,
Andy