Enroute Wind Information (744)

[rgamurot 1]

Since many of my flights are long-haul flights, I put in the wind information for each waypoint so I don't end up running out of fuel. At the same time, I don't want to have to dump fuel to make landing weight either. The problem is that I wanted to fly from London to Hong Kong but I would have over 100 waypoints. I don't want to spend several hours on the ground putting in the wind informaion. I also don't want to put in half the information on the ground and fill in the rest in flight just to find out that I need more (or less) fuel.Aside from making a shorter flight plan, is there an easier/faster way to put in the wind information? (Why do I have a sinking feeling the answers' no?)Ryan GamurotLucky to live Hawai'ihttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

[Guest Steve_Park]

Ah, but yes, however, you have to use two "Pay Ware" program's, but I am sure other will attest to their excellence also.Build your route with "FSBuild 2.3" and use Active Sky 6.5 to supply the weather automatically into your flight plan. If there is an active weather within a hundred mile's of the way point, the AS will have the wind's data and add it to the nav data for your flight plan. It also takes in into account when computing fuel...I always use it's numbers and have never had to refuel or run out yet.FSBuild export's directly to PMDG FMS format (along with dozens of others) and it is also used to in the native FS9 or FSX format to import into AS 6.5 for weather.And no, I do not work for either developer! Just paid my money and took a chance and got luck with these two.Steve Park

[rgamurot 1]

Wait, I have both those programs. I'm planning to fly BAW27 to Hong Kong at 2115z tomorrow (or today depending on your time zone). How does AS put the winds directly into the flight plan? I always print out the nav log and put in the numbers manually. Did I miss a feature or something? (I always have to do things the hard way.)Ryan GamurotLucky to live Hawai'ihttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

[Guest poschrob]

hi Ryan,on the fsbuild website you find both video and written tutorials about how to do it. it's really worth spending 5 minutes from your life on the fsbuild config!Rob

[VHOJT 167]

Hi there - I think Rob is referring to to winds in the FSBuild flight plan from activesky, not the PMDG 744 FMC.Just enter them in manually -takes about 5 minutes, and you can leave multiple waypoints with the same wind data blank.RegardsRudy

[BAW9DV 2]

Hi,Here's how I do it ....First, run ActiveSky 6.5 so that it goes online and updates the current world weather from the HiFiSim website. This effectively "refreshes" all the weather data and loads it into a "snapshot" file which can be read.Now, do an airport search within ActiveSky, on the departure and destinations for your proposed flight (in your case EGLL and VHHH) to get the current local weather and make a note of it.If you have not already done so, go to the FSBuild website and download and install the PMDG 747-400 Performance file. This gives FSBuild the performance data needed to make the fuel calculations more accurate.Next, run FSBuild 2.3 (you can leave ASV active if you like) and then place your departure and destination airports in there. I always leave the SID/STAR routes out of the process as you can select them manually in the 747's FMC according to the takeoff runway in use at the time you depart. Enter your proposed flight level and ETD. In the AIRCRAFT page, make sure that the PMDG 744 is selected for the planning purpose and add your taxi fuel (British Airways uses a standard 2000Kg or 4400lbs) and set flaps 30 for the landing equation (again, BA uses standard flap 30 landings).Next, enter the proposed routing you want to use, into the routing window, with airways and waypoints. Next, before building the plan, click the EXPORT menu at the top to ensure that you have selected the PMDG option to export the plan to. If you fly online, select Squawkbox as well. Also, ensure you export the route to FS2002/4 as well. Finally, click the build option to build the route and FSBuild will build the route and show it on screen as well as exporting the route shown into the format required for the PMDG FMC and FS2004 and Squawkbox, all if the options were checked.At the same time, FSBuild looks at the snapshot of world weather data captured by ActiveSky and then builds the route, calculating fuel for the available wind and weather data for the route. It also shows that data (click on the NAVLOG page to see the flightplan in written format with all the wind/time/fuel data) and you can print it out.Now, you have the route already built for you and available directly in the PMDG 744's FMC! Also, you have the route in SB if you fly online and so have it ready for that flight with no need to manually fill it in!Now, run FS and go into the aircraft on the ramp ready to set up the FMC. Refresh the data in ActiveSky and then when that is complete, we now need to tell ActiveSky all about the flight and its route - now we use the data exported by FSBuild into the FS2002/4 option.In ActiveSky, select NEW ROUTE and then select IMPORT to "import" the route data from the contents of the FS2002/4 file that FSBuild wrote to. Add the Alternate airfield and the cruise speed and click PROCESS. ActiveSky now processes the entire route, just as FSBuild did but with the emphasis on the enroute weather. When complete, you have a full navlog of the weather data for the entire flight which you can print out and edit into the FMC as you go.The best part about this is that ActiveSky "smoothes out" the weather along the route and interprets the winds aloft data as well for the flight. Also, with the weather data already captured by FSBuild and written into the flightplan, you know that you have a good idea of the fuel required for the trip based on the expected weather. For me, if I am flying eastbound with good tails winds, I'll not add much to the total fuel load - unless its an online event where holding may be expected; If the flight is west bound with large headwinds, I add a margin for error but so far I have been pretty much on the money, landing with the standard BA landing fuel on board of 13 tonnes (13,000Kg).I hope this is of some help to you.Good luck!regards,Lee

[Guest Peter Lloyd]

Capt. JamesThanks for posting such an informative response - I certainly learned something valuable on flight planning from reading your post.Peter Lloyd

[rgamurot 1]

Thanks Lee. Although I was hoping for a way to have the winds automatically put in to the FMC, the purpose was to get an acurate fuel prediction. I didn't know the log in FSBuild also showed fuel. Finally preflight won't take forever!Thanks again,Ryan GamurotLucky to live Hawai'ihttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

[rgamurot 1]

Quick question. I though ETD was Estimated Top of Decent but that doesn't really make sense. I decided to leave it blank but now I need over 400,000Lbs of fuel. What is ETD? I tried looking around but can't find it.EDIT: I'm playing with the ETD and the amount of fuel needed changes randomly when I change the ETD number. I needed ~410,000Lbs of fuel to start with ETD of 0. Now I set it back to 0 and I need ~370,000Lbs. In short, I have no idea what I'm doing and I can't figure out what ETD is.Ryan GamurotLucky to live Hawai'ihttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

[zementa 0]

Hi Ryan!ETD=Estimated Time for Departure.This came from a Google Search.But i dont know why it change the Fuel Prediction. Ralf

[rgamurot 1]

Thanks Ralf! I don't think this number did actually change my fuel prediction. I kept hitting build with 0 entered for ETD and the numbers still changed until they finally remained constant. I have no idea what that was about.Ryan GamurotLucky to live Hawai'ihttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg