lowew79

Id flown that route before and it is a 1.5 hour flight, in good weather (okay, in GREAT weather, as in FSX clear all weather theme).  With the weather my speed was slower and my fuel burn was higher, so it took 2 hours.  I just didn't know that it would be that much longer.
 
The tutorial suggests having 800 lbs reserve, but is that only for that, relatively short, tutorial flight?  Do airlines put more reserves, the longer the flight?  (SO like 800 lbs for a 1 hour flight, but 1500 pounds extra for a 3 hour flight?).
 
The rules in the tutorial obviously don't account for weather lol, but they also don't seem to account for payload. Isn't that a factor too?  (Or is the difference only appreciable on large aircraft)
 
From the responses it seems like there is not a set formula for weather or anything, just a company policy of you will need XXX lbs reserve, not counting alternate as first officer said above.
 
In real life do pilots have to work these numbers out themselves or does whoever does flight planning for them tell them how much fuel to load?
 
I will definitely check out fuelplanner.com.  And thank you all for the advice!