Help is on the way, Ohio.

I get the whole "balance" thing when it comes to airplanes. You can't have one end way heavier than the other - makes for bad flying. They even put the numbers into a "computer," to make sure that everything's where it should be. 

What I don't understand, however, is the compulsive need for SkyWest and ComAir flights to require ballast on such a regular basis. I can't even remember what Mesaba and Pinnacle ballast looks like (and they fly the SAME planes), but I do know it's not a leaky bag of sand. It's a heavy piece of rubber with a logo stamped into it, so you know whose is whose. 

My theory is that SkyWest and ComAir are writing off their flights as "flood relief," by delivering sandbags to flood-prone areas, like Cincinnati. 

I just hope we don't have any flooding around here any time soon, because we're running out of sand.