Hi!I'm planning my first flight in the 744 (EDDF -> KMIA), and I want to get this right! I'm using activesky, but I have no idea how to calculate how much fuel I'll need to addsubtract to get it just right. It says my average wind for the flight is 263/40. What am I supposed to do now? I really have no idea. I haven't found anything about windfuel planning in the manuals except in the "Cruise and Fuel Planning" file, and that didn't help much... Someone, please help me so I can get this flight started :).

OK I realise I have to rephrase my question a little bit :). The problem isn't calculating the fuel itself, but knowing what the effective headwind or tailwind is for my flight. I know this can never be exactly accurate. After all, I'm going to be airborne for about nine hours, so the winds will change as I fly. But how would one do this in real life? If I'm going from Europe to America, and my average wind is 263/40, should I calculate a tailwind of 40kts and leave it at that? Would I do the same if the wind was at 200/40?

Hi thereA crude way to find your average wind component is this:Incidentally, do you own FSBuild, if so, you csn use Activesky weather in FSBuild?Anyway. Firstly, work out your flight's average heading e.g. 220 (or roughly guess it).Then, find the average wind component, e.g. 263.Know also the velocity, e.g. 40 knots.Now, grab a calculator that does trigonometry.So, put in this:Wind comp ={cos(heading-wind direction)}*wind velocity ={cos(220-263)]*40} =29 knots headwind(If answer is negative, it is tailwind).Hope this helps, make sure you put the brackets in the calculator like I did. You can always use the windows calculator if you need to. Make sure it is set in degrees mode.CheersRudy

I found a neat program at www.plicht.de called RadioDist (v2 I think). It lets you enter Lat/Longs for your departure (airport) and arrival airport. It then gives you a direct bearing between the two. Assuming your flightplan is somewhat close to the great circle route, you'll get a pretty accurate bearing to use for head/tail wind componant calculations.PS Rudy, being a 744 fan, I couldn't help notice "OJT". Do you have anything special associated with her?Subs

Hi SubsShe's my "lucky" QF 744 - Flew on her once in 2000 to London, I flew on her to Europe in 2003, and to my surprise, got her on the return journey too. Quite a coincidence - they have about 29 744s I think.Nothing too special - just my "most travelled on 744"!CheersRudy