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How is the endurance computed


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lhe
lhe
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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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grahamb
grahamb
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The problem with computing any fuel endurance to the nth degree of accuracy is that a) real life rarely reflects the plan to that degree, even if the flight is straightforward, and b) if the plan goes out of the window, due to diversions or other unplanned events, all the initial assumptions (altitude, power setting, wind, climb and descent rates etc.) may be incorrect so the endurance will be what you can achieve, not necessarily what you thought.

I'm not for a minute suggesting that you should set off without a good grasp, and a record, of how much fuel the aircraft has on board, how much you calculate you will need, and what nominal reserves and endurance that represents, but agonising over whether it's 3:08, or 3:11, or 3:06 is frankly rather pointless.

On an IFR flight plan with full fuel I'll put 4:50 as my endurance, but I know I could easily stretch that to 5:15 or more without compromising my cruise speed too much if the chips were down.

GO

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