pmdg & bbj

[Guest]

9 hours ago, ClearedtoLand said:

I'm not sure, it was a long time ago, but it may have been Diego Garcia to Accra Ghana.

I will try to recreate the flight tonight to see whether it was that one and then make a note of passengers, cargo, fuel, distance, CI, cruise altitude, and what all of that results in.

And speaking as someone who has done Qantas 63 and 64 between FAOR and YSSY, spending 14 hours in economy class is not a lot more fun in a jet much bigger than the 737. I think Australia owes the world collectively an apology, have a spectacular country but hide it away in some near inaccessible corner of the world ... that's cruel!

No apologies from me mate! :P We’re in a great place, away from everything... (I know this is contradicting my statement below but as long as I have a view of the world outside the aluminium tube, can stand up in the aisle and have music, I’m happy to be on a plane.)

I know that economy is economy regardless of the aircraft but on a small single aisle aircraft, but the larger size and two isles of a wide body is something I like a lot (I’m not claustrophobic but I do like the feeling of space and the ability to stand up occasionally during cruise)...

 

[ClearedtoLand 149]

1 hour ago, VHOEI said:

No apologies from me mate! :P We’re in a great place, away from everything... (I know this is contradicting my statement below but as long as I have a view of the world outside the aluminium tube, can stand up in the aisle and have music, I’m happy to be on a plane.)

I know that economy is economy regardless of the aircraft but on a small single aisle aircraft, but the larger size and two isles of a wide body is something I like a lot (I’m not claustrophobic but I do like the feeling of space and the ability to stand up occasionally during cruise)...

 

I’ll accept your no apology since you guys have to suffer the same fate when you want to come and visit the rest of us. We’ll call it evens ... like the scoreline between the Wallabies and the Springboks last weekend.

Ok, so back to what a BBJ can do in the world of flight simming. First, I am convinced that the flight I referenced in my first post was from Diego Garcia to Accra, but I am not so sure of the duration of the flight now. This morning when I read your reply, I wasn’t quite sure whether it was from Diego Garcia to Accra, or to Abidjan Ivory Coast, so I loaded up Diego Garcia to Abidjan. Here are the details.

FJDG to DIAP distance: 4632NM

Actual distance Flown: 4651NM

Route: Direct

Flight Time: 11 hours 13 Minutes

TOW: 59.3 Tons

ZFW: 38.4 Tons (Load Level 4.4%)

Fuel Load: 20.891 Tons (100%)

Reserves: 2 Tons

FMC Predicted Reserves at Take Off: 1.3 Tons

FOB at DIAP after engine shutdown: 1.88 Tons

Fuel Used: 19.11 Tons

Cost Index: 0

Initial Cruise Altitude: 39 000FT

Step Climb to 41 000FT after 4 hours

FMC Predicted Reserves after Step Climb: 1.7 Tons

FOB at TOD: 2.3 Tons

So, in conclusion, the PMDG 737 700 can do 11 hour flights, but the margin of error is so tiny that it shouldn’t. And I am not even sure that if I repeat that flight ten times, that it would make it ten times.

Something quite interesting about the flight was the speed near TOD, the plane was cruising at Mach 0.68 with a 16 knot tail wind. I have never seen the plane crawling along at that speed before.

I am sure that just about everything about that flight violates every last aviation regulation, but we’ll call it an experimental flight and the four passengers weren’t high ranking Nigerian armed forces personnel but lowly paid aircraft engineers who were “encouraged” to “volunteer” for the flight. Still, all good fun.

[Guest]

On 05/10/2017 at 9:38 AM, ClearedtoLand said:

I’ll accept your no apology since you guys have to suffer the same fate when you want to come and visit the rest of us. We’ll call it evens ... like the scoreline between the Wallabies and the Springboks last weekend.

Ok, so back to what a BBJ can do in the world of flight simming. First, I am convinced that the flight I referenced in my first post was from Diego Garcia to Accra, but I am not so sure of the duration of the flight now. This morning when I read your reply, I wasn’t quite sure whether it was from Diego Garcia to Accra, or to Abidjan Ivory Coast, so I loaded up Diego Garcia to Abidjan. Here are the details.

FJDG to DIAP distance: 4632NM

Actual distance Flown: 4651NM

Route: Direct

Flight Time: 11 hours 13 Minutes

TOW: 59.3 Tons

ZFW: 38.4 Tons (Load Level 4.4%)

Fuel Load: 20.891 Tons (100%)

Reserves: 2 Tons

FMC Predicted Reserves at Take Off: 1.3 Tons

FOB at DIAP after engine shutdown: 1.88 Tons

Fuel Used: 19.11 Tons

Cost Index: 0

Initial Cruise Altitude: 39 000FT

Step Climb to 41 000FT after 4 hours

FMC Predicted Reserves after Step Climb: 1.7 Tons

FOB at TOD: 2.3 Tons

So, in conclusion, the PMDG 737 700 can do 11 hour flights, but the margin of error is so tiny that it shouldn’t. And I am not even sure that if I repeat that flight ten times, that it would make it ten times.

Something quite interesting about the flight was the speed near TOD, the plane was cruising at Mach 0.68 with a 16 knot tail wind. I have never seen the plane crawling along at that speed before.

I am sure that just about everything about that flight violates every last aviation regulation, but we’ll call it an experimental flight and the four passengers weren’t high ranking Nigerian armed forces personnel but lowly paid aircraft engineers who were “encouraged” to “volunteer” for the flight. Still, all good fun.

That...

That is really, really impressive.

If the 737 was cruising a little bit above the speed of a fast prop by the end of the flight, then I guess 11 hours of flight are possible.  Wow though, that is truly incredible!

Thanks.

[liubolun 0]

What I did with a USAF C-40C repaint is that I think you can tweak a little bit in aircraft.cfg. Change the fuel capacity and MTOW to whatever that matches the AF.mil website says. ( I remember I tweaked the MTOW to 171,000lbs, total fuel 60,000 lbs capacity, but of course there are a lot still does not match the real C-40C BBJ.

- A/C CG movements when aux tank was added in the lower lobe, with fuel flowing to the maintank

-Aux fuel system and control switches in the cockpit of course need some expert to develop

-C-40C OEW as I cannot find it somewhere. I just use 90,000+lbs for a random number (swapping economy seats with business seats I just assumed no change in seat weights)

-static thrust bumped to 27,000 lbs (according to AF.mil), but cannot re-configure FMC to have 27K BUMP option, as well as cannot have CPDLC function like the B777

-Of course I cannot add IFF features for this military jet.

-Aft airstair would be an awesome bonus in the next update

 

That's all I could think of. The A/C has some range that reaches 4500-5000nm, landing at almost empty tank sometimes yields 120 KIAS Vref, almost feeling like flying a turboprop. Easily 10+ hours

Edited March 13, 2019 by liubolun
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