Maximum Range Flight - PADU to ENVA Non-Stop

[jzimmermann 238]

PMDG have done a fantastic job at modelling the 737NGX. My thanks to all the team, really, this is just such an amazing aircraft you have managed to assemble! Well I thought it would be interesting to see what kind of maximum range real-world flight might be possible, real in the sense of using a properly planned flight with real weather withthe 737 configured as realistically as possible. So after much Google Maps gazing, I decided it was time for a flight from Dutch Harbor in Alaska to Trondheim in Norway. I configured as direct a route as possible without just flyingfrom A to B, which gave me a total distance of 3787.8 NM or just over 7000 km. Here is a graphic of the route I planned: This seemed like an awfully long way to fly a 737-800 on one full tank of fuel, just over 8 hours in fact. I setup the aircraft with the short-field package and the lighter Messier-Bugatti-Dowtycarbon brakes, then fed my waypoints into the FMC. I wasn't totally sure that this was going to be feasible, but with a max fuel load and and an empty load, the FMC showed that I wouldhave just a few drops of fuel left upon arrival, exciting stuff. After a rather short take-off run, the runway at PADU is only 3900 ft long, I was up in the air and on my way. I figured that the optimum flight route would also have me cruising at 41.000 ft, soI made sure that I had reached cruising altitude before going to bed and leaving my iMac with FSX running for the night. Around 6 hours later I was back at my iMac with just over an hour left before touchdown. The progress page on the FMC still showed that there would indeed be very little fuel left upon myarrival, enough though to get me there without running out somewhere en-route. Immediately before descending through the clouds over Norway I received a low-fuel warning, but everythingstill seemed right on track. Finally, after 8 hours and 12 minutes, I touched down at Trondheim airport. What a great maximum range flight! For those interested, here is the exact routing: Well I hope you enjoyed my short flight summary. Until next time. Jerome PS Here are some additional geographic route views for those interested:

[XPX64man 130]

Thank you Jerome! That's looks like a real challenge.I believe it was not only a test to get the maximum distance for the 737-800NG, but it was also a real testament to the sound work of PMDG and the rock-solid NGX software they developed.I'm going to try this flight because it will also put a good test on my computer.Thanks for posting this Jerome. Bob

[ahuimanu 50]

FliteStar looks cool. Also looks kinda spendy.

[GGLurch 10]

I did the same when i got my NGX, after a couple of take-offs and landings at KBFI to get familiar with the procedures, i filled her up, got the original flight plan from FlightAware for the delivery flight of the latest 737-800 for Norwegian (NAX1) and took off for KBFI-ENZV , my home airport. The original flight took place on 1. Aug. and took 8h 49min according to FlightAware. The winds were not optimal and i took me at the original FL390 (also the optimum according to FMC) 9h 42min using LRC settings. I landed in bad weather (and wished the Norwegian planes had the HUD as an option, at least the PMDG livery version had non) ILS on Rwy 18 with 2400lbs of fuel (predicted 3600lbs at take-off ). Distance was 4102nm. Great flight! Nico

[jzimmermann 238]

I did the same when i got my NGX, after a couple of take-offs and landings at KBFI to get familiar with the procedures, i filled her up, got the original flight plan from FlightAware for the delivery flight of the latest 737-800 for Norwegian (NAX1) and took off for KBFI-ENZV , my home airport. The original flight took place on 1. Aug. and took 8h 49min according to FlightAware. The winds were not optimal and i took me at the original FL390 (also the optimum according to FMC) 9h 42min using LRC settings. I landed in bad weather (and wished the Norwegian planes had the HUD as an option, at least the PMDG livery version had non) ILS on Rwy 18 with 2400lbs of fuel (predicted 3600lbs at take-off ). Distance was 4102nm. Great flight! Nico

Hi Nico, Ha, you really must have been running on fuel tank fumes at the end. You do know that you can "cheat" and give any plane the HUD through the PMDG options menu in the FMC, right ? Cheers, Jerome

[jzimmermann 238]

Thank you Jerome! That's looks like a real challenge.I believe it was not only a test to get the maximum distance for the 737-800NG, but it was also a real testament to the sound work of PMDG and the rock-solid NGX software they developed.I'm going to try this flight because it will also put a good test on my computer.Thanks for posting this Jerome. Bob

Thanks Bob. Yes, I didn't really expect Windows 7 to crash overnight, but I wouldn't have been surprised either. I guess the iMac is a very stable Windows 7 hardware platform, grinn. And yes, of course the fact that there was no program crash bears testimony to the quality of code that PMDG have written. Cheers, Jerome

[Echo52 46]

Jerome, Did you use VMWare or Parallels to run Windows 7 on your Mac? Ed

[jzimmermann 238]

Jerome, Did you use VMWare or Parallels to run Windows 7 on your Mac? Ed

Hi Ed, I only ever use Bootcamp. More info available here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_Camp_%28software%29 With the new Lion OS it got updated to V 4.0 and other than the big Apple logo on the front of the iMac, you wouldn't really know that you're not on a "proper" Windows machine. My specs: Processor 2.93 GHz Intel Core i7Memory 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024 MBSoftware Mac OS X Lion 10.7 (11A511) I had problems with VSync at the beginning due to the ATI card, but now that it's always on, everything runs pretty smoothly. Cheers, Jerome

[stfitts 0]

Great job on executing a great flight here. But more importantly.... Awesome software!

[jzimmermann 238]

Great job on executing a great flight here. But more importantly.... Awesome software!

Thanks Shawn! Yes, I haven't had a single software crash yet running Windows 7 x64 on my iMac, totally amazing software running on pretty damn good hardware. ;-) Jerome

[GGLurch 10]

Hi Nico, Ha, you really must have been running on fuel tank fumes at the end. You do know that you can "cheat" and give any plane the HUD through the PMDG options menu in the FMC, right ? Cheers, Jerome

Yeah... i figured it out later ;-) Nico

[EGLL77W 1,508]

PMDG have done a fantastic job at modelling the 737NGX. My thanks to all the team, really, this is just such an amazing aircraft you have managed to assemble! Well I thought it would be interesting to see what kind of maximum range real-world flight might be possible, real in the sense of using a properly planned flight with real weather withthe 737 configured as realistically as possible. So after much Google Maps gazing, I decided it was time for a flight from Dutch Harbor in Alaska to Trondheim in Norway. I configured as direct a route as possible without just flyingfrom A to B, which gave me a total distance of 3787.8 NM or just over 7000 km. Here is a graphic of the route I planned: Well I hope you enjoyed my short flight summary. Until next time. Jerome PS Here are some additional geographic route views for those interested:

 

Wow - which software is that for flight planning?