Wind Component

[GAJ52 54]

I am using AS2004 with FSBuild ver 2.2.My fuel loader program for PMDG 737 requires the average wind component for the route to work out the required trip fuel (average headwind or tailwind). When a route is applied to AS2004 it works out an average wind speed and direction for the route flown (bottom of page) but this is not the average wind component.How do I find the average wind component please ?Glen Coyne

[JSkorna 137]

Hi Glen,Not sure with other flight planners, but I know you will not get this with AS. Don't know if you have done this, but you may want to post at the PMDG forum to seek ideas. Also, many of our users may be along here to offer their suggestions.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

[GAJ52 54]

Jim, thanks for the replyWould it be possible in a future update of ActiveSky to include an 'average wind component' figure so pilots would be able to calculate trip fuel more accurately, as in the real world.ActiveSky is so good it caters for just about everything else except 'wind component'. As many of the next generation of aircraft addons have fuel calculators, this would be very useful.RegardsGlen

[JSkorna 137]

OK,I'll put it on the AS Next list. No promises though!Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

[Guest _sebastian_]

Calculating the wind component on a fixed aircraft course is a matter of simple trigonometry; Wcomp = Wspeed * Cos(HeadingAircraft - HeadingWind).Problem is that the aircraft does NOT have a fixed heading but follows airways along legs of different lenght, so one would have to calculate the mean heading also. This, however, is fortunaltely also a simple task, albeit quite labourious to do manually: (HeadingLeg1*LengthLeg1 + HeadingLeg2*LengthLeg2 + ... + HeadingLegN*LengthLegN)/(LengthLeg1 + LengthLeg2 + ... + LengthLegN). Let us say one cruises at heading 33 for 102nm then at heading 45 for 45nm then at heading 55 for 73nm. Then the calculation look like this:(33*102 + 45*45 + 55*73)/(102 + 45 + 73) = 42.75.Thus, with a wind blowing from 100 @ 55 the wind component along the aircraft path is: Wcomp = Wspeed * Cos(HeadingAircraft - HeadingWind) = 55 * Cos(42.75 - 100 + 180) = 55 * Cos(122.75) = -29.75. That is, one would insert the number 30 (as headwind component) in Ross Carlsson's excellent fuel calculator for the NG series.This calculation is based upon a very simple flight path (3 legs). If you have more it becomes to labourious to even bother unless you are a really die hard fanatic:-) So I think it would be nice if AS would implement this in a future update. As can be seen from the above example it is not to complex to program from a math point of view.Regards,Sebastian