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Fuel Planner what is correct? A330 Professional


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How should I plan the flight? The flight LFPO - ZBAA Simbrief 64.0. Fuelplanner 44.4 Blockfuel. I loaded 69.6 Blockfuel and now it is getting less and less and less at the destination. Cost Index is 35, how can I reliably plan fuel? Whit A330Professional

Fabian

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  • Deputy Sheriffs

The predictions during flight are off. We currently text a fix.

The predictions during preflight should be reliable, if winds are entered.

The fuelplaner is just a rough calculation. Simbrief is much better.
If you use fuelplaner, you can check preflight predictions and adjust fuel amount accordingly.

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I'm having some issues with the FuelPlanner also... with the 320s works great, but the first flight I made with the 330, from KMIA to LIMC, using the wind data of Active Sky once inserted the route, it gaved to me like 41 tons, but i just arrived over Nantes when the engines died... And I noticed also that the ECAM doesn't give you any warning message about running low on fuel... anybody in the same situation?

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On 1/6/2020 at 12:23 PM, FedeSuper10 said:

I'm having some issues with the FuelPlanner also... with the 320s works great, but the first flight I made with the 330, from KMIA to LIMC, using the wind data of Active Sky once inserted the route, it gaved to me like 41 tons, but i just arrived over Nantes when the engines died... And I noticed also that the ECAM doesn't give you any warning message about running low on fuel... anybody in the same situation?

 

I finished a flight yesterday from Montreal to Geneva and I loaded the block fuel as per Simbrief. In preflight it gave me 5.4 tonnes at Geneva. As soon as I was in climb phase the EFOB became -0.6. It adjusted before TOD and at the end I landed with 5 tonnes of fuel. So SimBrief calculations are correct. Wind must be taken into consideration. I usually fly 3 days in the past, so I load exactly the same historical weather both in Active Sky and SimBrief. The A330 will use AS winds and SimBrief calculation are based on the same winds, so block fuel is pretty accurate. I'm no expert, that one was my first long haul in the A330 and I was scared all the way to the TOD, eh eh

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I completed a Rome to Washington DC today, but again the FuelPlanner gave me too low fuel... So I calculated it myself, with an average consumption of 6 tons per hour... And arrived safely with 5 tones still on the wings...  The PERF calculations doesn't work actually, it just says -0.6 everytime... 

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10 hours ago, FedeSuper10 said:

I completed a Rome to Washington DC today, but again the FuelPlanner gave me too low fuel... So I calculated it myself, with an average consumption of 6 tons per hour... And arrived safely with 5 tones still on the wings...  The PERF calculations doesn't work actually, it just says -0.6 everytime... 

 

The AS Fuel Planner is far from perfect, but there is a different reason for what you experienced. 

 

The AS Fuel Planner only looks at a straight line between the Departure Airport and the Arrival airport.  The flight you describe not only considers SIDs and STARs, but essentially great circle navigation (curvature of the earth - and remember that on a sphere the closest distance between two points is not a straight line), and NAT Tracks.  This is why we recommend using Simbrief or PFPX, or another flight planning software and then entering that calculated fuel into the bottom right of the Fuel Planner (Total Fuel).  You'll have the AS Fuel Planner in Advanced Mode to do that.

 

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7 hours ago, DaveCT2003 said:

 

The AS Fuel Planner is far from perfect, but there is a different reason for what you experienced. 

 

The AS Fuel Planner only looks at a straight line between the Departure Airport and the Arrival airport.  The flight you describe not only considers SIDs and STARs, but essentially great circle navigation (curvature of the earth - and remember that on a sphere the closest points between two points is not a straight line) and NAT Tracks.  This is why we recommend using Simbrief or PFPX, or another flight planning software and then entering that calculated fuel into the bottom right of the Fuel Planner (Total Fuel).  You'll have the AS Fuel Planner in Advanced Mode to do that.

 

Yes I know that but, not owning PFPX, I plan my flights with SkyVector, setting precisely my route and adding also SIDs and STARs when it's able to add it (in flights from major airports they're often available), so whenever I open the FuelPlanner, after inserting departing and arrival airports, it gives me the shortest circle route obviously, but than I go to change the distance it sets to the one that SkyVectors gives to me... (for example, the LIRF-KIAD i performed was 3900nm for the Planner, but with the route I arrived to 4000nm); adding also the average wind that Active Sky gives in the briefring for every selected level, I thought to have a "nearly good" fuel calculation, but was actually very very poor: it said 44 tons, but I used nearly 60! 

But i'm also starting to think, if I'm the the only one, or one of the few experiencing this issue, that's a problem caused by some bad data inserted by me... This was the FuelPlanner loadsheet of yesterday:

 

Please login to display this image.

 

Cargo value is very high, because I ever try to simulate to the nearly MTOW I can reach (considering also the Max Landing Weight, there for example I didn't go further with the load, because I would have had a too heavy aircraft at landing).

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29 minutes ago, FedeSuper10 said:

But i'm also starting to think, if I'm the the only one, or one of the few experiencing this issue, that's a problem caused by some bad data inserted by me... This was the FuelPlanner loadsheet of yesterday:

 

It's not just you. The fuel planner is giving significantly lower figures than required for the A330.

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5 minutes ago, Sharkbait said:

 

It's not just you. The fuel planner is giving significantly lower figures than required for the A330.

That is a bug and hopefully will get fixed in the near future. For now I would suggest that you use the fuel quantity provided by simbrief or PFPX.

 

Regards,

 

Markus

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I agree with what Markus said, and I recommend you try Simbrief.  It's both incredible and incredibly easy.

 

I was supposed to have a video done by now oh how to perform Fuel Planning and Dispatch for the A330 using Simbrief but I've had a very bad cold and family have had some medical issues for us to contend with, so combination of not feeling well and no time.  I'll try to get that done this week if I possibly can. 

 

Best wishes!

 

 

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I'll deal with it for the moment, maybe'll try PFPX... I'll see

BUT! Guyz... I think i broke it....

 

Please login to display this image.

 

Was going all ok, than at FL200 circa it started again refueling, and GWCG gone red 😕

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10 minutes ago, FedeSuper10 said:

I'll deal with it for the moment, maybe'll try PFPX... I'll see

BUT! Guyz... I think i broke it....

 

 

Was going all ok, than at FL200 circa it started again refueling, and GWCG gone red 😕

 

Whoa! I've never seen that happen. Remind us, are you using GSX and/or the Aurbus built in Copilot? My first thought is it's GSX. If you're usung GSX, have you updated recently?

 

 

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1 hour ago, DaveCT2003 said:

 

Whoa! I've never seen that happen. Remind us, are you using GSX and/or the Aurbus built in Copilot? My first thought is it's GSX. If you're usung GSX, have you updated recently?

 

 

Was loading passengers with GSX, and meanwhile i started refueling with the built-in system. It never stopped: i've just made the fuel-less airplane today.

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Just now, FedeSuper10 said:

Was loading passengers with GSX, and meanwhile i started refueling with the built-in system. It never stopped: i've just made the fuel-less airplane today.

 

LOL!

 

It seems as if both the Airbus and the GSX refueling as triggered and for some reason was delayed, then occured sometime after you departed.  If that's the case then FSDT needs to put a "check and stop if" line in their code.  Example:  If airborne, prevent the refuel.

 

 

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58 minutes ago, DaveCT2003 said:

 

LOL!

 

It seems as if both the Airbus and the GSX refueling as triggered and for some reason was delayed, then occured sometime after you departed.  If that's the case then FSDT needs to put a "check and stop if" line in their code.  Example:  If airborne, prevent the refuel.

 

 

Yep! 

In any case, with a couple of months of little fixes here and there, will be a very pleasable bird to fly. Hope Aerosoft will give as the 200 series also (with the GE engines please :D)!

Another beautiful, beautiful dream... the 60 version of the DC-8... It's just a dream, but.. who knows, Aerosoft? 

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