Fuel Planning!!!

[Guest spinningwheel]

Hello World, Inorder to get a more accurate fuel plan for my flight with the PMDG 744 where can I get aloft wind speed and direction for over the South Atlantic? Im flying from KJFK to Cape Town South Africa and want to know the aloft wind speed and direction. I went to NOAA.gov but cannot seem to find weather for that region.Marc B.

[Guest hirnwut]

If you are looking for a great tool think about Active Sky! It'll give you accurate weather information for every waypoint as well as average wind/aloft data. It also enhances your skies and has a nice ATIS feature.Regards@lex

[CF104 0]

On top of Active Sky, I would also recommend FSBuild 2.2. It's a wonderful flight plan program that can retrieve Active Sky weather right into your flight plan.Cheers,JohnBoeing 727/737 & Lockheed C-130/L-100 Mechanichttp://www.sstsim.com/images/team/JR.jpg

[Guest D17S]

AS6 will interface with FSBuild. This will probably provide a good foundation if someone wants to attempt a serious sim flight. The following might be one way to go: Load your flight plan into AS6 and pick either current or a historical weather moment. It's quite a drill to get it to hook up to FSBuild, but it will work. Let FSBuild generate a flight plan with AS6 providing the winds data. Then, let FSBuild generate a PDF with the FP and print it out. Go back to AS6 and print out the weather log too. Now enter the FP into the PMDG FMC . . . along with the winds aloft data from the FSBuild/AS6 information. Compare the burn projected in FSBuild to the projection from the FMC. They will be different. Use the FMC's burn projection and add the extras as required. Use that number for your fuel load.Run AS6 as your weather engine and fly. Keep that flight plan print out handy and use it as a scratch pad to jot down winds/temps and fuel remaining at each waypoint. This is exactly what a real pilot does. Now this is the job of a sim pilot. Compare the winds/temp numbers to the AS6 winds/temp preflight print out. You must make sure the winds that AS6 is providing FS9 are acting correctly. AS6 only updates winds aloft every 12 hours. If you are using current weather, hopefully you'll stay in that 12 hour window. But if not, they will change . . . and things will get interesting. You gotta pay attention! Also, just for the research factor, see how far off the FSBuild fuel numbers get as the flight progresses. They will not match. Monitor the FMC

[phil747fan 14]

>AS6 will interface with FSBuild. This will probably provide a>good foundation if someone wants to attempt a serious sim>flight. The following might be one way to go: >>Load your flight plan into AS6 and pick either current or a>historical weather moment. It's quite a drill to get it to>hook up to FSBuild, but it will work. Let FSBuild generate a>flight plan with AS6 providing the winds data. Then, let>FSBuild generate a PDF with the FP and print it out. Go back>to AS6 and print out the weather log too. >>Now enter the FP into the PMDG FMC . . . along with the winds>aloft data from the FSBuild/AS6 information. Compare the burn>projected in FSBuild to the projection from the FMC. They will>be different. Use the FMC's burn projection and add the extras>as required. Use that number for your fuel load.>>Run AS6 as your weather engine and fly. Keep that flight plan>print out handy and use it as a scratch pad to jot down>winds/temps and fuel remaining at each waypoint. This is>exactly what a real pilot does. >>Now this is the job of a sim pilot. Compare the winds/temp>numbers to the AS6 winds/temp preflight print out. You must>make sure the winds that AS6 is providing FS9 are acting>correctly. AS6 only updates winds aloft every 12 hours. If you>are using current weather, hopefully you'll stay in that 12>hour window. But if not, they will change . . . and things>will get interesting. You gotta pay attention! >>Also, just for the research factor, see how far off the>FSBuild fuel numbers get as the flight progresses. They will>not match. >>Monitor the FMC