I would like to indicate the way I calculate and enter winds aloft into the 737NGX FMC and receive any comments anyone might have on this procedure. I use the ASE briefing to get the wind info I need. For the climb I will use the average wind direction and speed for three or four waypoints starting with origin airport at 6000 ft and ending with the waypoint prior to TC. This average I enter in the cruise wind line on the PERF INIT page. For cruise I enter wind direction and speed on the ACT RTE DATA page for each waypoint. For descent I enter wind direction and speed for FL300, 18000, and 9000 on the ACT DES FORECASTS page. I always use these altitudes because there ISA adds to -68. I add up the actual ISA for these altitudes, get the difference and divide by 3 to get an ISA DEV to enter into DESCENT FORECAST page. Since all of my flights are between FL330 and FL390 I believe the three altitudes I am using fit all situations.Thank youMichael Cubine

No comments?Michael Cubine

I do similar with REX.....Descent FL300, 18000 and about 6000

I do similar with REX.....Descent FL300, 18000 and about 6000

Hi.Are you able to get winds aloft in REX over each point along the route? For some reason my REX shows upper winds only over Origin, Dest and Altrernate, but based on manual REX is supposed to generate winds over every point in flight plan, there is even screen shot showing that. I posted this issue in REX forum but no reply from anyone. Also I was landing in ESSA two days ago with cross wind 92 kts at 2000 feet. That was wild.Thank.

"For cruise I enter wind direction and speed on the ACT RTE DATA page for each waypoint. "I enter data only on waypoints where the wind has changed direction and speed significantly, speeds things up when you have many waypoints.Rob Hall.

For the climb I will use the average wind direction and speed for three or four waypoints starting with origin airport at 6000 ft and ending with the waypoint prior to TC.

I normally don't bother with climb info. You're clearing levels so quickly, and climb is relatively short, it doesn't affect much, and the data won't give you much of an advantage.

This average I enter in the cruise wind line on the PERF INIT page.

There's really no point in entering the average if you're going to do the following:

For cruise I enter wind direction and speed on the ACT RTE DATA page for each waypoint.

For descent I enter wind direction and speed for FL300, 18000, and 9000 on the ACT DES FORECASTS page. I always use these altitudes because there ISA adds to -68. I add up the actual ISA for these altitudes, get the difference and divide by 3 to get an ISA DEV to enter into DESCENT FORECAST page. Since all of my flights are between FL330 and FL390 I believe the three altitudes I am using fit all situations.

The ISA request on the FORECAST page is for the destination airport, I believe, so it understands how to adjust for when you switch from standard (29.92/1013) to local, so the calculation isn't entirely necessary. Just pull up the METAR and plug in the altimeter setting and the difference in the temp from 15C (you can adjust approx 2C/1000' if you wish to get a more accurate reading).As far as alts, I normally just use altitudes that have big shift in wind (direction or speed), or if it's not too different, I just use altitudes that are evenly spread (or as close as possible) from my cruise alt to my lowest wind data available.In the end, using the average on the PERF INIT page will give you a very similar end result as entering it point by point, unless there's some huge variation in wind for a small segment. Don't let yourself get too micro that you lose the big picture. Data is good, but too much data can get you lost. Then again, if it kills time in cruise, why not?

I would like to indicate the way I calculate and enter winds aloft into the 737NGX FMC and receive any comments anyone might have on this procedure. I use the ASE briefing to get the wind info I need. For the climb I will use the average wind direction and speed for three or four waypoints starting with origin airport at 6000 ft and ending with the waypoint prior to TC. This average I enter in the cruise wind line on the PERF INIT page. For cruise I enter wind direction and speed on the ACT RTE DATA page for each waypoint. For descent I enter wind direction and speed for FL300, 18000, and 9000 on the ACT DES FORECASTS page. I always use these altitudes because there ISA adds to -68. I add up the actual ISA for these altitudes, get the difference and divide by 3 to get an ISA DEV to enter into DESCENT FORECAST page. Since all of my flights are between FL330 and FL390 I believe the three altitudes I am using fit all situations.Thank youMichael Cubine

Hi,the FMC task is not to calculate fuel for ya. FSbuild does that perfectly with ASE help. Would you like me to post a vid about how i prep my flights? i got FSbuild ASE EFB REX etc...

Hi,the FMC task is not to calculate fuel for ya. FSbuild does that perfectly with ASE help. Would you like me to post a vid about how i prep my flights? i got FSbuild ASE EFB REX etc...

KamanWho said anything about fuel? I use Vroute Premium for fuel calculation. If your video of prep for flight shows any wind entries into the FMC I would appreciate a link to the video.ThanksMichael Cubine

KamanWho said anything about fuel? I use Vroute Premium for fuel calculation. If your video of prep for flight shows any wind entries into the FMC I would appreciate a link to the video.ThanksMichael Cubine

I would like to apologize. I was also reading another post at the same time and made a confusion. Sorry! Anyway i see you got KMIA, nice pick!

The ISA request on the FORECAST page is for the destination airport, I believe, so it understands how to adjust for when you switch from standard (29.92/1013) to local, so the calculation isn't entirely necessary. Just pull up the METAR and plug in the altimeter setting and the difference in the temp from 15C (you can adjust approx 2C/1000' if you wish to get a more accurate reading).

KyleSo if I understand you correctly you are only using the destination airport for the ISA dev and not the average for three altitudes during the descent. I am doing a KLAS-KTPA flight now and if I use your method the entry would be 3/30.21 and I am using 9/30.21 for the descent forecast. Maybe that is why my VNAV descents are always out to lunch.I became OCD about winds aloft and descent forceasts once I raised so much hell on a Captain Sim forum about their handling of the winds in the 752 FMC. Once I found planes like the 744, 748, and MD-11 I felt almost obligated to make the entries otherwise I would be hypocrite.Michael Cubine

I would definitely consider myself to be a little obsessive, so I see where you're coming from.From what I understand, it's the destination's ISADev/Altimeter, yes. I could be wrong, but that would make the most sense to me, as ATC would be giving you the destination airport's altimeter as you come on down and get cleared below the flight levels. That seems to be the main reason for providing it, as if it's vastly different from 29.92 the path won't be as accurate as it should be, and you'll have a big jump when you switch from standard to local.

Hi,the FMC task is not to calculate fuel for ya. FSbuild does that perfectly with ASE help. Would you like me to post a vid about how i prep my flights? i got FSbuild ASE EFB REX etc...

Actually it is - the PLAN function on the PERF INIT page and the fuel prediction on the PROG page do exactly that. The FMC itself is the best fuel planner you'll ever find - an external program would have to be running the same code the FMC itself does to get it fully right. (this is what real life professional dispatch programs used at the airlines actually do)

Actually it is - the PLAN function on the PERF INIT page and the fuel prediction on the PROG page do exactly that. The FMC itself is the best fuel planner you'll ever find - an external program would have to be running the same code the FMC itself does to get it fully right. (this is what real life professional dispatch programs used at the airlines actually do)

So you mean for best fuel prediction i should use the fmc but in real life they use an external software (having the fmc "capabilities")? Would be just INCREDIBLE if you guys could offer a simple utility that could accurately calculate fuel needed (winds, weights, distances, alternate, altitude...etc take into account)?IMO that's the single thing missing here!

I would definitely consider myself to be a little obsessive, so I see where you're coming from.From what I understand, it's the destination's ISADev/Altimeter, yes. I could be wrong, but that would make the most sense to me, as ATC would be giving you the destination airport's altimeter as you come on down and get cleared below the flight levels. That seems to be the main reason for providing it, as if it's vastly different from 29.92 the path won't be as accurate as it should be, and you'll have a big jump when you switch from standard to local.

KyleI am still about 150 mile from TD on the KLAS-KTPA fight, I will try your method and see what happens, Unfortunatley the temperature at Tampa is 23 now versus 18 when I wrote the post several hours ago. So I am going to enter 8/30.24.Michael Cubine

Dont u enter Winds Aloft in the Legs Data page? I run my flight plan through FS Build then convert it to a FSX.xml plan and then load it into ASE flight plan, pocess it and it gives me Winds and Temps at those points at my cruise Alt.