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Route/Wind Optimization v1.28?


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Hello,

I recently updated from v1.26 to v1.28 and noticed that route planning now doesn't seem to be wind optimized anymore. I was planning a flight KSFO-RJAA and chose Minimum Fuel (MFT) under Find Route, Advanced Route Planner. The result gave me a routing very close to the GC with a headwind of 84kts. I then tried Minimum Time and Minimum Distance options just for fun and got exactly the same routing, fuel burn and enroute time as for MFT.

 

The attached screenshot shows the results for these three scenarios. In addition I also computed a flight using one of today's KSFO-RJAA routings from Flightaware. This gave me a much more southerly track avoiding the jetstream with flying time and fuel burn of 45 minutes/20,000lb less than under the PFPX ' optimized' plan (see last listing under results). Wind optimized routing seemed to be working well with v1.26, is there a new setting or option that I need to set to have this back in v1.28?

 

Many thanks

Kind regards,

Michael.

 

  

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Did you try to lay the wind chart over your actual FPL? Above the map third symbol from the right!

There you see which wind conditions you have.

 

And for your flight from KSFO - RJAA the system is exactly doing what it should.

Planning along the PACOTS.

 

Those are changing, like Nats and Ausots every 12 hours according the wind.

 

Greetings

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  • 2 weeks later...

Even with the latest hotfix (1.28.8) the problem persists. Also the turbulences are not shown on the printed charts anymore. Could bring both features back please?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Christian,

 

I have done some further testing with long-range flights and provide below a few observations that might help you track down the issue/resolution.

 

1. Flights involving defined tracks- ie NAT/PACOTS. If there are defined tracks in place between departure and destination, PFPX (using optimize route/minimum fuel track) will usually choose the track which is closest to the GC between departure and destination and not necessarily the most fuel efficient track. See below example for ANA7, KSFO-RJAA.

PFPX (using Minimum Fuel Track) chose track F which is close to the GC (in yellow), resulting in an EET of 11:15, a wind component of -68kts and 82.7t fuel burn (left picture).

The track actually used by ANA7 that day (as per Flightaware) was much further north (track C-right picture) giving a much lower wind component (-37kts) and shorter trip time/reduced fuel burn notwithstanding the much further ground distance of this routing. 

However, I've noticed that even with defined tracks, if the tracks have a longer ground distance than the GC (ie by say 3-4%) then PFPX auto routing will ignore the tracks and develop a random track close to the GC. 

 

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2. Flights not involving tracks. For routes without defined tracks (ie polar routings, North Atlantic above the OTS) PFPX always seems to generate a random routing more or less along the GC. See example below for UAL58 KSFO-EDDF.

Left picture show PFPX derived track using optimize route, minimum fuel track, which is more or less along the GC. En-route time is 10:31, fuel burn 232klbs and wind component of zero (rare to see that!). Right picture shows the routing actually used by UAL58 this day, much further south picking up some tail wind, resulting in shorter flight time (10:15) and reduced fuel burn (228 klbs). In fact, I have planned this flight numerous times (>10) over the last month and PFPX invariably gives me the exact same routing every time (ie in the left picture below) no matter what the jet stream pattern for that day is.   

 

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Hope the above is helpful and you are able to restore wind optimization within PFPX.

Kind regards,

Michael.

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Hi Michael,

 

outstanding work. i saw the same when planning flight from DXB-HKG and back, that for the flight to HKG it took a GC near route and lucky me i had good tailwinds there, but on the way back, a much further south routing would have been by far better, as there was less HWC. But it planned a route directly in the wind... so fuel burn and flight time was much higher, than a cost, time and fuelburn optimized route.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Routes for me are just like others above. Not taking winds into account. Support for this app has almost disappeared and I paid for a new year of weather.

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I have the same problem with 1.28:(

 

This was the number one reason that I use PFPX, but now it seems to pick the shortest route no mather what the wind is like.

I really hope you fix this soon, as a bought a 365 days subscription, and now it seems useless really.

 

Thanks.

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