Hello!

Recently, I bought this stunning aircraft and I'm very satisfied with the level of detail it holds.

However, there's almost no documentation on fuel planning and flight level determination etc.

Using the documents available on Avsim, I can get Trip & Alternate fuel estimates, but there's no info what so ever on Taxi and Final Reserve fuel. I also wonder how to determine the FL of a flight.

Btw, the FSX fuel planner does NOT satisfy my needs.

So, how do I plan the items stated above?

With proper documentation, this plane would've been amazing!

Best Regards!

Johan Nordqvist

If you are using the additional Avsim docs, check the performance2 doc and find this table.
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/2324/optimums.jpg
The highlighted values are the optimal ones referring to your GW. The left side shows the corresponding PA (pressure altitude) to be used then.
So for example 265.000lbs GW leads to a FL370 cruise.

The same doc offers some fuel calculations too.

As for the taxi fuel consumption, you will end there with not real values as on most flight sim addons. FSX models the drag on the ground other than real and you therefor have to use some thrust where the real plane would idle most of the time.
Best way therefor is to watch your FF meters when doing a normal taxi.

Use the reset button on the eng station before and you get very accurate readings accurate which can be used on further flight planning actions.

Problem is, that the document asks for the gross weight of the plane, which includes fuel weight I assume? So how can I then calculate the fuel required when the document asks for the GW that includes what I'm trying to calculate?  :-?

Maybe this thread (http://www.captainsim.org/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1286907082) helps you a bit because the table above is just one part of the document which contains some calculation basis for your fuel consumption.

You are right, GW is the overall weight of the plane, including fuel, passengers and cargo.

Took a look at the topic, but there wasn't anything useful there.
The chart available there is the same one I tried to use.

I've decided to use FSBuild for flight planning as it gives fuel numbers and a good flight plan.

Still, I do think that Captain Sim messed up with this, not including proper documentation and all. I mean, would it really have been that difficult?

I took another look at the docs and now I understand how the fuel planning works.  8-)

It's just a matter of working the problem backwards.

However, what number should I pick for final reserve fuel?