The above post is from me. Forgot to logout of my roomates account. DOH!>

>Thanks Steve,>>Excellent info... I've been looking for RW ops at major>airports recently and this gave me a lot of info..>>Just curious, but from a pilots point of view, what is the>advantage of the GE's over the RR's?>>Cheers,>PaulHi Paul,There is not really much difference. Essentially for us it is that our GE's have autostart and the RR's dont. They are also the older aircraft and have a sped brake limitation i that they cannot be used with flaps extended past 10 degrees.I was hoping for a GE on this flight because that is the default PMDG model.CheersSteve

Steve!Fantastic mate. I, and all the others here, really appreciate what you've done.I'm assuming you're a Kiwi? If so, thanks from a Wellington boy! Working on the same assumption, did you start by driving 737's into Wellington? Apparently the nor' wester can be....challenging for you blokes? :)CheersTim

It does appear that you went a different way than we did and this will have a significant effect on winds and therefore fuel burn.Is there a way to input specfic winds at altitude against each waypoint within FS9 or via a an add in program?Sam it seems like you had double the fuel we had on arrival. Man would our company love to hear from you!!!!I guess the later stages of your track took you more westerly. We were over LAS so the Civet arrival was favoured.You are right. Those SouthWest critters are everywhere!CheersSteve

>Steve, thanks for all the info. That is more then I expected>to receive and I am looking foward to making this flight in FS>next week sometime.>>Where do you head next? Back to Auckland?Yes back to Auckland but will be deadheading as a passenger. Not the usual tour of duty for us. Go on leave for a couple of weeks when I get back.CheersSteve

>I'm assuming you're a Kiwi? If so, thanks from a Wellington>boy! Working on the same assumption, did you start by driving>737's into Wellington? >>Apparently the nor' wester can be....challenging for you>blokes? :)Yeah I am based in Auckland.I was based in Wellington when I first started about 20 years ago.Cut my teeth on the Fokker F27 both 100 and 500 series. A great introduction to flying airliners. Progressed to the right seat of the 737 for a short time and then back for a command on the F27. From there the 767, 747-200 and 747-400.Yes the old Nor Wester was an issue at times. Landing a F27 in 50 kts was fun at times, especially if the wind had any crosswind component. There are two "holes" at each ends of the approaches at about 200 ft that you had to be aware of. Flying a little higher than norm on the vasis made things a little easier. It got to the stage that we flew in and out that often that we just automatically corrected for the shear and the hole just as you reached it. A great sport.When I resume work I will try to get the details for a trans tasman flight. A bit shorter and easier to run a comparison against. I guess that the quality of the comparison is going to be determined by the ability to input the environmental data in the sim. CheersSteve

Thanks Steve, about to attempt your approach as above, but will start @ Montreal.I noted you did it all in VNAV, I'm still learning my way around the 747, but usually use FLCHG.Good time to learn I s'pose.Would love to see a trans-Tasman route - London to LA bit long for us fellas with kids!CheersTim

Yes it is pretty hard getting a leave pass from 'her who must be obeyed' even for a short Christchurch to Auckland flight (1 hr).Keep trying with the VNAV. It is a good mode for that CIVET arrival. If you do the Hector transition off the LAS trk you will se that there are a lot of altitude constraints to meet. If you are in VNAV path you will meeet them all easily. The only spanner in the works is ATC applying speed control. Make sure that if you get this that you update it in the VNAV descent speed page. Vnav will recalculate the descent based on this new speed. All you have to do is regain the path using either speed brake or thrust. Be prepared to put out flap early and dont arrive at the commencement of the ILS too fast. It is hard to slow up and go down a 3 degree glideslope at the same time. Be prepared for lots of speed brake and if necessary put the gear out early.....a very effective speed brake that one.You might also like to try the LOOP departure Dagget transition out of LAX as well. Put a 10 mile range circle in the fix page and when you get airborne keep your turn back to the LAX VOR inside that 10 mile circle. The hardest restriction to meet is the first one after the VOR (sorry name escapes me at this time). Try it at a realistic Atlantic crossing weight of 350 tonnes TOW.Try maybe KLAX to KLAS and then back to KLAX. Happy flying.CheersSteve

stevejust by chance, do you have any relations in brisbane? are you a new zealander?

Sam,I have an FSBuild profile that is much more accurate than the one currently available.I got fed up with inaccurate predictions when I was doing the UA895-896 runs a few months back, so I made a new one.I asked if anyone wanted to test it right here in this forum, only got one response, and only heard from that individual long enough for him to get the files, then nothing.If you'd like to have a look at it let me know, it's been working very well for me.

Brian, Absolutely! I

Hi Clayton,No I do not. I have a mother up in Hervey Bay by the surname of Swan and my brother is joining the exodus to the Gold Coast in Aug/Sep. He is a maintenance engineer with Air NZ and is leaving after 28 years.CheersSteve

OK well flew the route with 747 Pax and GEUsed historical data from asky6 for the date given ( nice feature)I emulated every detail possible from the report1554.1 Z Out0206.6 Z OnKLAX Gross Weight at landing 242,8KgFuel remaining 8.1 Kg at touchdownClose but a bit more fule was burned, seemed to knock some good headwinds at the end and a few thunderstorms as wellThanksMike

Hi Steve, reference to the below:FUEL CALCS (KG)A TO B 106962 (INCLUDES 2.4 % PERFORMANCE DETERIORATION ALLOW A/C SPECIFIC)CONTINGENCY FUEL 2 % 2156EGLL DEP ALLOW 819 (800 PLUS 2.4 % PDA)INST APP KLAX 1331 (1300 PLUS 2.4 % PDA)DIV TO KFAT 6160RESERVE 30 MIN 3838What does:(INCLUDES 2.4 % PERFORMANCE DETERIORATION ALLOW A/C SPECIFIC)mean?CheersTimNZWN

Sounds about like what I had. My overburn was about 10% too. I'm still gathering data for my re-match.