by Rocket_Bird » Sun Jun 26, 2011 8:05 pm
Well I wouldn't trust what FS reports for fuel burn. If that is a 737-400 your talking about (FS9), I would suspect that the fuel burn reported is really shy of how much it would take, at that Flight Level, to get to your destination.
I'm no flight dispatcher, but I would assume that a large number of factors come to play: wind, distance, weight on aircraft, and of course, the rules. Check out some of these resources, as they might be helpful:
-http://www.b737.org.uk/pilotnotes.htm (check out the rule of thumb too)
-http://hsors.pagesperso-orange.fr/acftdata.html
I pulled a dispatch sheet once from an airline I used to work for, and I believe that airliners carry just barely enough to reach their destinations with a little extra for diversions and weather. On a 430 nm route, at FL400, on a 737-700, the plane only arrived with just 2 or 3 thousand lbs of fuel (if even that) if my memory serves me right. I believe real world dispatchers factor a lot of the variables in via computer software (which probably varies from operator to operator). I've shadowed an airline dispatcher once, and that was the impression I got.
In the sim, myself, I just prefer using pre-made fuel calculators, which are usually available for free. With addons that come with flight management computers, I often just see how much fuel it takes me to get to my destination, and trim or add fuel as needed.
Of course, with lighter aircraft, fuel may not be such a restrictive factor. Airliners, definitely.
A real flight dispatcher would probably be more helpful than this.
Cheers,
RB