I posted this in the Active Sky forum but somebody suggested it might be more benificial here......I am using AS2004 with FSBuild ver 2.2.The fuel loader program for PMDG 737 requires the average 'wind component' for the route to work out the required trip fuel (average headwind or tailwind). When a route is applied to AS2004 it works out an average wind speed and direction for the route flown (bottom of page) but this is not an average wind component.How do I find the average wind component please so I can feed this into the fuel calculation program.Glen Coyne

Glen,That one is a toughy. The only way i know to get a true wind component from a known direction and speed is with an EA-6B calculator. That will give you the head/cross wind components./R,Ted Barkley

GlenDoes the AS2004 wx report give you an average heading as well? If so you can do some simple math and get your head/tailwind component.The formula would be:YComp = WndSpd * Cos(Hdg - WndDir)Where:YComp = Wind component in lateral coordinate. Negative values are headwinds, positive are tailwinds.WndSpd = Average wind speedCos = The trigonometric function CosineHdg = Average heading for flightWndDir = Average wind directionI hope I got that right. :-)

Mats,Average wind direction and speed yes, not sure about average heading, I will check it out.I would be interested to know how other pilots calculate their trip fuel. In a sim its not so essential to get this right I guess, as wasted fuel doesn't cost anything, but as whe are talking 'simulation and realism' it would be nice to get as close to the real world as possible. Maybe this could be added to future versions of programs like ActiveSky and FSBuild !Glen

>talking 'simulation and realism' it would be nice to get as>close to the real world as possible. In real world they don't use high algebra to estimate fuel. Aircraft performance tables give you fuel to climb, cruise and then descent. Avergage head-wind component can be either eyeballed from the weather charts (you must see entire route with wind depicted) or in case of airlines who have advanced dispatch centers it can be integrated along the routes. And then they add fair amount of "reserve". The point in all this is that a pilot who knows his airplane can fairly quickly arrive at the needed fuel without using any calculators or advanced tools.EDIT: if wind aloft is known in a few places along the route then wind component can be quickly estimated if someone is skilled in very basic trigonometry (every pilot should). The whole calculation can be done in the head because you don't need exact number, you need the worst case number.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2

Glen, this is what I do:If I'm flying West, I put in a 60 Kts headwind. If I'm flying East, I use ZERO winds. I've never broke MGLW, nor dipped into the reserves so badly that I was uncomfortable./R,Ted

FSBuild 2 plus ActiveSky or FSMeteo can produce fairly realistic route sheets with predicted fuel use for every leg, plus reserves, etc.Lee Hetherington, PP-ASEL (KBED)

You might want to play around with this is you don't have the real calculator.http://www.csgnetwork.com/e6bcalc.htmlE6B Emulator

The average wind component is displayed on the 3rd line of the Fsbuild2 Navlog for the incorporated winds from AS2004.Labeled 'AVG W/C'.Regards.Ernie.

>You might want to play around with this is you don't have the>real calculator.>>http://www.csgnetwork.com/e6bcalc.html>E6B Emulator>Holy smokes Kyle! That is a great website! I had to save it to my favorites!