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How is the endurance computed


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A sample fuel plan computed by SkyDemon looks like this:

Taxi/Takeoff          4,2 ltr
Enroute      2h 17m  73,6 ltr
Holding Time    45m  18,5 ltr
Landing               2,5 ltr
Contingency (10 %)    7,4 ltr
Minimum             106,1 ltr
Planned       3h 8m 106,1 ltr


How is the endurance 3h 8m calculated? No time is given for the contingency fuel, but clearly it contributed to the endurance. At the fuel flow for the chosen power setting (31.7 l/h), the contingency fuel would contribute 14 minutes for a total of 2h 17m+45m+14m = 3h 16m – 8 minutes more than the total computed by SkyDemon. (The times for enroute and holding are correct.)

Am I missing something or is there an error in how SkyDemon computes the endurance? (If there is an issue with SD, now would seem a good time to address it as the fuel plan calculations are about to be reworked anyway to include Final Reserve Fuel.)



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Tim Dawson - 7/29/2024 9:16:48 AM
Right now, we take the amount of fuel planned and subtract the taxi/takeoff fuel and landing fuel specified for the aircraft, giving us the fuel available for the enroute part of the flight. That figure is divided by the fuel burn of the chosen power setting at the chosen overall level for the flight, giving the endurance figure.

If there's a better way to arrive at the figure, we are certainly open to it.

I see. A problem with that is that the holding fuel (and the future Final Reserve Fuel) is determined with a (probably) lower fuel flow. Also, the trip fuel includes the climb which is at a higher power setting than cruise. When reading the fuel plan, I would expect that each item contributes to the endurance with its given time.

My suggestion is to compute the endurance as the sum of:
1) The trip time computed by SkyDemon
2) The holding time (and future time for FRF)
3) Time for the contingency fuel – this could be computed either using the cruise fuel flow or as a percentage of the trip time, although using the cruise fuel flow may make more sense. The difference would in any case be small.
4) Time for additional fuel above the minimum, using the cruise fuel flow.

In my example above, this would give an endurance of 3h8m.

Properly, a time should be included for the landing fuel as well, but the fuel flow is not known and the contribution would in any case be small

GO

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