Hi Guys, Does anyone out there have a decent method of planning the step climbs in the 747? I know there are tables in the manual, but it's all a bit hit and miss, given that the table on page 2-9 doesn't take into account the fuel required to climb, nor does it really help you if you want to do an ICAO climb (i.e. not 1000 feet at a time). There must be more accurate tables out there. I'm trying to build a decent excel fuel planner, but this is the biggest problem I've had. Any help appreciated! Tom PS - I know I can just type it all into the FMC and wait to see what comes out, but that's not what happens in the real world, when your flight plan is filed well in advance of you getting into the cockpit!

I beleve there are also tabels to calculate how much fuel you will burn at what altitude.When you calculate that, you can also calculate the weights at every stage of the flight.If you know the weight, you can see what altitude is optimum at page 63 of the manual..Hope it helped a little!Cheers,Stefan van Hierden