Free alternative to TOPCAT

[lassekronborg 43]

Hi Mikkel,

 

It is the type of seat

 

Y= Standard or economy

C = Business

F = First Class

 

I'm not sure these letters are common for all airlines though.

 

Cheers

Lasse

[mgh_06 0]

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

 

Best regards,

Mikkel

[Fabo 213]

 

 

I'm not sure these letters are common for all airlines though.

 

Y and F generally are. Some airlines use J instead of C for business. And you might run into an odd R here and there - that would normally mean "something even better than F". I believe Singapore uses this code for their suites and BA used it for the Concorde.

[dwc3402 0]

link no working .... sorry my error

[FlyingAxx 2]

Ha, I thought that was an Aprils Fool. It would really make the Center of Gravity calculations more challenging. During climb everybody would be lying on top of each other in the rear of the cabin and during descent they would be stacked outside the cockpit door.

 

 

Hi Lasse,

 

No April's fool at all,here is just one link http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation/9661829/Seatbelts-on-planes-are-pointless-says-Ryanair-boss.html.

 

Would I go on a plane like that....? Without hesitation yes!

 

Regarding your rhetoric question and answer my own answer would clearly be the contrary 'NO'. I'll rather pay quite more than entering such an aircraft. Even now I do have some problems to trust such airlines regarding the level of their safety standards even if I do not want to say that they are not doing the required minimum, not to say anything about the comfort parameters... :blink:

[lassekronborg 43]

Yes.... ok... not an aprils fool but something similar.

 

 

http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2010/07/ryanair-announces-6-vertical-seats--but-is-it-just-a-hoax-by-the-airline/98722/1

 

It's all about making money. It's called viral marketing. And it works.

[kevinh 409]

Yes.... ok... not an aprils fool but something similar.

 

 

http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2010/07/ryanair-announces-6-vertical-seats--but-is-it-just-a-hoax-by-the-airline/98722/1

 

It's all about making money. It's called viral marketing. And it works.

His latest (perfectly serious) scheme is to drastically increase charges for checked baggage, discouraging people from bringing it and so reduce turn round time (and increase profits).  Might be cheaper to send your luggage air freight on another airline. Or perhaps travel with only hand luggage, buy cheap clothing locally and dispose of it before returning.  His publicity seeking certainly gets the airline noticed, but in my case at least it only makes me even less interested in using it because of the "make everything an extra" pricing philosophy.

 

Back on topic, I just downloaded the latest update to your excellent flight planning spreadsheet. Great work and thanks for taking account of feedback in this thread.

[Balint Szarka 123]

Hi Dmitrij

 

Thanks for the kind words. I hope you are a little less confused by now.

In the upper section of the sheet, where you choose the aircraft type, you can also choose the seat configuration. So you are only limited to the number of seats that is the maximum of that type of aircraft: 736 = 130 seats, 737 = 144 seats, (PMDG has place for 146, this will be the limit in the next version I'm working on), 738 and 739 = 189 seats.

As for the BBJ I got the max seat numbers from Boeings sales webpage. I'm not sure they are true.

 

you can combine the classes of seats as you want. You can even have three classes: Y,C,F. So you should'nt be limited at all.

 

I'm going to stick with the passenger stuff, as I'm working on a way to calculate Center of Gravity. It's getting complicated, but I'm getting there :-). Besides aircraft performance is very much defined by load weights including PAX. So to make accurate calculations this information is needed.

 

Thanks again for your feedback.

 

Lasse

Hi I just downloaded your, sheet. Amazing. But I have 2 questions....

1. What Y,C,F mean, I know these are classes but which one is the economy, first class I think is the F, but then what designates Y? 

2. What Luggage/PAX does mean? and at the end of this row what "pcs" designates? Is that a weight? or what....Should I convert it when changing weight unit? 

Thank You!

 

Balan22

[machine2035 176]

Hi I just downloaded your, sheet. Amazing. But I have 2 questions....

1. What Y,C,F mean, I know these are classes but which one is the economy, first class I think is the F, but then what designates Y? 

2. What Luggage/PAX does mean? and at the end of this row what "pcs" designates? Is that a weight? or what....Should I convert it when changing weight unit? 

Thank You!

 

Balan22

Y is a standard code for Economy, C being Business. However airlines go beyond just Y, usually with different fare types all which will sit the passenger in Economy class. For example, X could be for a sale at the time, however it is a same style seat as if it said Y.

 

Most common fare basis codes shared among airlines are;

• F: first class
• J: business class
• Y: economy class

In regarding to question (2), PCS designates peices i.e. How many peices of luggage denotes the luggage weight you entered.

 

For example, luggage weight of 2000KG's with 100 pcs = 20KG per peice/bag

[Balint Szarka 123]

Y is a standard code for Economy, C being Business. However airlines go beyond just Y, usually with different fare types all which will sit the passenger in Economy class. For example, X could be for a sale at the time, however it is a same style seat as if it said Y.

 

Most common fare basis codes shared among airlines are;

• F: first class
• J: business class
• Y: economy class

In regarding to question (2), PCS designates peices i.e. How many peices of luggage denotes the luggage weight you entered.

 

For example, luggage weight of 2000KG's with 100 pcs = 20KG per peice/bag

Thank You for making some things clear. May I have an another question? I tried out a derated take-off (TO2) and all weight were put into the plane's FMC. The sheet calculated everything according to my runway, wind/speed set. I set in the FMC that I want to make a double derated take-off (also this was selected in the sheet). The sheet calculated me the V speeds for T/O but when I reached the take-off page in the FMC, the plane's self calculated speeds were way higher than the sheet's, also the center of gravity was different. Maybe am I doing something wrong?

Thank You!

 

Balan22

[machine2035 176]

Thank You for making some things clear. May I have an another question? I tried out a derated take-off (TO2) and all weight were put into the plane's FMC. The sheet calculated everything according to my runway, wind/speed set. I set in the FMC that I want to make a double derated take-off (also this was selected in the sheet). The sheet calculated me the V speeds for T/O but when I reached the take-off page in the FMC, the plane's self calculated speeds were way higher than the sheet's, also the center of gravity was different. Maybe am I doing something wrong?

Thank You!

 

Balan22

In my experience there will always be some descrepancies between what an OPT program is spitting out, and what the FMC thinks (Even in the real airplane, especially the 744, we see differences between our AAM's and what the FMC calculates).

 

In regards to the COG, unless it was a very small difference, you may of loaded the FWD/AFT cargo compartments/passengers different to what you indicated in the spreadsheet. I am not sure how the spreadsheet places passengers in comparison to how PMDG do it, but that may have some impact on the COG from the two different sources.

 

But in the end, as long as you have entered all your data correctly into the spreadsheet I am sure you will get off the ground with no issues and be on your merry way to your destination.

[Balint Szarka 123]

In my experience there will always be some descrepancies between what an OPT program is spitting out, and what the FMC thinks (Even in the real airplane, especially the 744, we see differences between our AAM's and what the FMC calculates).

 

In regards to the COG, unless it was a very small difference, you may of loaded the FWD/AFT cargo compartments/passengers different to what you indicated in the spreadsheet. I am not sure how the spreadsheet places passengers in comparison to how PMDG do it, but that may have some impact on the COG from the two different sources.

 

But in the end, as long as you have entered all your data correctly into the spreadsheet I am sure you will get off the ground with no issues and be on your merry way to your destination.

These are interesting news for me.

Again Thank You I really appreciate your help thanks

[machine2035 176]

These are interesting news for me.

Again Thank You I really appreciate your help thanks

No problems, but you might want to sign your full name there in your signature or you may find that your posts have vanished into thin air :Cry:

 

FYI, in my 2 years of flying the NGX and using TOPCAT, the figures generated by TOPCAT and the FMC have never been the same once. However, I have never had an issue and am yet to take the localiser out at the end of the runway and end up with a cut-up fuselage belly :db:

[lassekronborg 43]

 

 

In regards to the COG, unless it was a very small difference, you may of loaded the FWD/AFT cargo compartments/passengers different to what you indicated in the spreadsheet. I am not sure how the spreadsheet places passengers in comparison to how PMDG do it, but that may have some impact on the COG from the two different sources.

 

But in the end, as long as you have entered all your data correctly into the spreadsheet I am sure you will get off the ground with no issues and be on your merry way to your destination.

 

Unless the plane is full the PMDG will distribute the passengers randomly and calculate the CoG based on that. Try deload som passengers and then enter the same number of passengers and you will notice, that the CoG is not the same every time. As the sheet can't predict how the NGX distributes passengers it will distribute the weight of the passengers evenly along the cabin lenght. Thus CoG might be different from the PMDG CoG.

 

One thing that is true, however, is that First class passengers often weigh much less than coach class per feet of the cabin length simply because the seats takes up more space. At the moment the sheet does not handle more than one class very good. I'm working on an update which will be uploaded in a very short time, where these differences between the three classes are calculated much more precise.

 

As for the distribution of cargo and luggage: In older versions the sheet had a 40/60 rule build in, so that the it would automatically place 60% of the weight in the aft compartment. But after I intruduced CoG calculations I thought it would be nice to have more control over that figure by beeing able to shift weight back and forth. I can't seem to find any consistent information or standard procedures about the distribution of cargo weight. I did find something though (I believe it was in the airliners.net forum) that in the 738 the first 1-2 tons goes in the aft compartment and then spill over to the forward, still keeping more weight in the back.

 

I'm glad that you all like the sheet. It is great fun for me to make and to constantly try to improve.

 

Cheers and thanks for all you relevant questions, feedback and requests. Keep'em coming!

 

Lasse Kronborg

[machine2035 176]

Unless the plane is full the PMDG will distribute the passengers randomly and calculate the CoG based on that. Try deload som passengers and then enter the same number of passengers and you will notice, that the CoG is not the same every time. As the sheet can't predict how the NGX distributes passengers it will distribute the weight of the passengers evenly along the cabin lenght. Thus CoG might be different from the PMDG CoG.

 

Cheers and thanks for all you relevant questions, feedback and requests. Keep'em coming

Hi Lasse,

 

I assumed that may be the case and hence why balan22 was seeing conflicting figures. Thanks for the explanation.