Two questions:Does the FMC fuel calculator compute the amount of fuel needed to fly a route or merely display the amount of fuel presently in the tanks?On route entry--if entering a J route is it necessary to include fixes on the route. The example in the manual shows a route from TXK J42 MEM J42 GVE. Could this have been entered as TXK J42 GVE or is the MEM a required entry even though the J route remains the same departing MEM?

The FMC calculates fuel for the route. However, I don't believe it factors in winds, and in FS2002, at least at the ZFWs I typically use, it tends to overestimate fuel consumption and I tend to land with a bit more than planned. That's better than underestimating fuel use I suppose.No, you do not have to enter intermediate route points. TXK J42 GVE would be fine (assuming TXK and GVE are actually on J42).Lee Hetherington (KBOS)

I find as well that my fuel on arrival estimate tends to go up as the flight goes along, probably due to winds as Lee mentioned.On the real bird, you can enter wind forcasts from the legs page by pressing LSK6R. Alas, not possible in FS2K2 (although with FS's wind modeling, who knows what you'd end up with :)). Entering winds helps a lot with fuel predictions, along with making VNAV descents more accurate.Jon (KSE)A