Flight Simmer Looking for Information
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Join Date: Oct 2020
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Flight Simmer Looking for Information
Good morning,
Firstly apologies if this is the wrong thread - this is a strange request but I'm not sure what other avenues to go down. I was recommended to post here by BALPA who I contacted first.
I have been a flight simulation enthusiast for a number of years (presently flying for British Airways Virtual - BAV). However I would like to add as much realism to virtual operations as I can.
What I'm hoping to find out are procedures that crews follow during cruise. Flight Sim is detailed but can lack in some areas. For example you can create a detailed flightplan using a service called Simbrief which gives you your zero fuel weight, waypoints and times etc but what I'd really like to know is what crews do once they are up to cruise level, especially on longer flights e.g. EGLL to KSFO. I know there's handoffs between atc areas but am interested to find out what else goes on i.e. they have times on the flightplan for each waypoint - do they note down the actual time they pass that waypoint for later analysis? How is waypoint reporting done when flying on north atlantic tracks?
If there is any information that you could provide I'd really appreciate it and would feed it back to my fellow simmers in BAV.
As I said, strange request
However other than fixed wing gliding which I had to give up due to cost I'm never going to be able to fly airliners for real.
Kind regards.
Firstly apologies if this is the wrong thread - this is a strange request but I'm not sure what other avenues to go down. I was recommended to post here by BALPA who I contacted first.
I have been a flight simulation enthusiast for a number of years (presently flying for British Airways Virtual - BAV). However I would like to add as much realism to virtual operations as I can.
What I'm hoping to find out are procedures that crews follow during cruise. Flight Sim is detailed but can lack in some areas. For example you can create a detailed flightplan using a service called Simbrief which gives you your zero fuel weight, waypoints and times etc but what I'd really like to know is what crews do once they are up to cruise level, especially on longer flights e.g. EGLL to KSFO. I know there's handoffs between atc areas but am interested to find out what else goes on i.e. they have times on the flightplan for each waypoint - do they note down the actual time they pass that waypoint for later analysis? How is waypoint reporting done when flying on north atlantic tracks?
If there is any information that you could provide I'd really appreciate it and would feed it back to my fellow simmers in BAV.
As I said, strange request
However other than fixed wing gliding which I had to give up due to cost I'm never going to be able to fly airliners for real.Kind regards.
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Not much first hand knowledge on north atlantic procedures, i always flew in the VHF region which basically worked like normal flying anyway, except the required oceanic clearance which we usually got via datalink.
That said, in cruise there have to be regular time and fuel checks. Usually done on the OFP (operational flight plan) or the responding app, at least once an hour, but some companies require that to be done every 30 minutes or each waypoint, whichever comes first. In that we check how we are in time (late, early at a waypoint) and fuel (burned more, or less) and therefore how are we doing in regards to arrival time and remaining fuel and possibly extra fuel, contingency fuel etc. And of course we regularly check weather at each possible en-route alternate as well as our destination and alternates for that. And obviously the usual stuff about in flight weather avoidance is always ongoing (turbulence, convective weather).
That said, in cruise there have to be regular time and fuel checks. Usually done on the OFP (operational flight plan) or the responding app, at least once an hour, but some companies require that to be done every 30 minutes or each waypoint, whichever comes first. In that we check how we are in time (late, early at a waypoint) and fuel (burned more, or less) and therefore how are we doing in regards to arrival time and remaining fuel and possibly extra fuel, contingency fuel etc. And of course we regularly check weather at each possible en-route alternate as well as our destination and alternates for that. And obviously the usual stuff about in flight weather avoidance is always ongoing (turbulence, convective weather).
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@Denti and @Less Hair thank you both so much!
Denti I tend to keep the OFP (at least as official as I can call it!) on my iPad so I believe I can amend it as the flight goes along - I'll give that a go. I always simulate using real world weather so it will be interesting to see how the OFP times and fuel burn predicted compare to actual performance.
Less Hair thank you for the link to that video, I'll give that a careful watch later on. I've always been interested in how control is managed in a no-radar area...I'm doing a fair few flights "across the pond" as a farewell to the 747.
While this is for simulation only I'm keen to understand the real world procedures as much as possible
Denti I tend to keep the OFP (at least as official as I can call it!) on my iPad so I believe I can amend it as the flight goes along - I'll give that a go. I always simulate using real world weather so it will be interesting to see how the OFP times and fuel burn predicted compare to actual performance.
Less Hair thank you for the link to that video, I'll give that a careful watch later on. I've always been interested in how control is managed in a no-radar area...I'm doing a fair few flights "across the pond" as a farewell to the 747.
While this is for simulation only I'm keen to understand the real world procedures as much as possible
