Fuel Planner Utility (Beta)

[Azapata87 173]

BUMP

[Guest Paragon]

Great utility...but I keep getting the runtime-error also. I very much appreciate you taking the time to do this, it's very useful and easy to use.Mikkel

[Vulcan 14]

Thanks for this utility Ross. I think the graphics look neat, I like the way it reads the load out, but reading another post here I need to check if it just reads the default load or the load entered by load manager, and I like the way it automatically fills the tanks (registered FSUIPC).The other fuel planner that was released a while ago also has a problem with the load. If you enter the number of PAX from the load manager the weight in the fuel planner does not agree with the weight givien by the load manager.3 things I would prefer changed.Taxi fuel to be entered as time rather than fuel quantity.It seems you cannot enter a negative wind component (i.e a tail wind)Why is the alternate fuel set at a minimum of 200nm?I have done a number of flights using your planner and it seems reasonable. I have never run out of fuel and never had far too much on landing but all flights have been done using real weather and I haven't bothered to calculate the wind component. Maybe some flights with no weather to check the basic fuel burn.Keep up the good work, I'm sure you will get there with some tuning.

[Guest rcarlson123]

Thanks for your suggestions.As mentioned on the web page, I elected not to support a tailwind component since I don't see it as prudent to count on something as unreliable as the winds to save you fuel, and thus purposefully reduce the amount of fuel you load into your tanks. I'm sure you've heard some variation of the saying "Three things that are useless to a pilot: Altitude above you, runway behind you, and fuel in the truck."The 200nm minimum alternate is simply because that's where the fuel consumption tables start, which is where the program gets it's numbers for calculations. I'm not sure that having shorter distances will make enough difference in the fuel quantity to matter anyway. At least not when you factor in all the more rough numbers such as taxi fuel, holding fuel, and enroute fuel.Entering taxi fuel as a time value is an interesting idea. If the majority thinks that's a more logical way of entering estimated taxi fuel burn, then I'll make the change.Regarding reading the payload, it reads 4 values directly from FSUIPC, one for each of the 4 payload stations, which are first class PAX, economy PAX, forward cargo hold and aft cargo hold. So if the values don't match what you see in the load manager (it does for me, to the pound) then something strange is going on with the load manager.Thanks again for the suggestions!

[Guest rcarlson123]

To Andrew and the others getting the runtime error, if you are familiar with the windows registry editor, please open it and open up the tree to the following key:HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/VB and VBA Program Settings/FuelPlanner737NG/SettingsLet me know what the values are for the following keys:AlternateDistanceCruisingAltTripDistanceIt would be best if you could email me the info instead of posting it here since this forum is really for PMDG products, and not troubleshooting my beta utility. :) My email address is:pmdg at metacraft dot comObviously, replace the "at" with @ and the "dot" with a period, I don't want email harvesters picking up my email address for their spam cannons.

[Guest rcarlson123]

Ruud,I had the same question, and posted it here in the forums, and never got a reply. I decided to go with the lower of the two conflicting values (between the docs and the load manager) in order to be safe. I didn't want to encourage people attempting to takeoff when grossly overweight. :)I will increase the maximums for the next beta version, although bear in mind that the utility will not prevent you from going beyond the weight limits. The only thing it actually prevents is trying to load more fuel than will fit in the tanks.

[Vulcan 14]

Hi Ross,I was 'given' your fuel planner by a fellow VA Captain so had not looked at your web page, sorry. It is now bookmarked :-)The reason I mentioned taxi fuel as a time value is that all the other fuel planners I have use time so I am used to that, and I guess a lot of other pilots are the same.On my next few flights I will check the load manager weights against your fuel planner weights, just to make sure I don't get any errors.Again thanks for this utility.

[ahaka 0]

Ross,Excellent work! Love it. ;)However, I noticed that the max takeoff weight for the -700 is different in load manager than in your fuel planner. Could you or someone tell me why? Which program should I trust? :)

[Guest rcarlson123]

Trust the load manager ... the values that my program use come from the PMDG documentation, which apparently is incorrect. I will fix this in the next beta version, which will be posted later today I believe.

[Guest rcarlson123]

I've posted the second beta version on my site. This fixes a bug many were having with a runtime error, and adds support for entering and viewing weight values in kilograms as well as pounds. Grab the second beta here:http://www.metacraft.com/737NGFP/

[virtualstuff 758]

Thanks for all the work really appreciated, start downloading now :-)Andr

[Guest Fjorko]

Hi Why can't you choose your own flight level ?

[Guest rcarlson123]

That's because the program draws it's data on enroute fuel consumption from the tables provided in the documentation, so only those flight levels are given. Those flight levels are what's commonly used anyway, and I assume that you could just use the closest level for your flight if the level you want isn't one of the options. Obviously, if you are planning to cruise way below FL290 for some reason, then you will use more fuel due to increased air resistance, but you'll save some in the climb too, so I'm not sure how much different it will be. Maybe an expert could chime in here.