Ideal Flight Accessibility phase 2

[Steve Waite]

21/April/2020:

Latest IF versions include screen reader support and in-sim voice callouts by codelegend.com

Preview 14:

Ideal Flight Professional P3D v4
Ideal Flight 10 Professional P3D v3
Ideal Flight 10 Special Edition
Ideal Flight 10 Original

Pre 14 is uploaded quickly because we are testing a problem related to small simulator screen size in relation to the desktop size.

[Steve Waite]

When you load fuel manually, do the values such as reserve, taxi fuel, etc matter when adding manually?

After filling with payload, the maximum flight weight shown in the cfg "[WEIGHT_AND_BALANCE]" section limits what fuel you can use. Also the aircraft has an amount of fuel that lays in the tanks and is deemed unusable so you can't fly so long as you might think.

One way to check things out is if you fill with minimum payload and check if you can include maximum fuel. The briefing quick information section has a lot about fuel calculation.

The fuel is divided by taxi and reserve time at the rate governed by range and time. The calculation is based on range input and your climb descent rates and speeds and altitudes showing in aircraft flight parameters.

The fuel amounts shown in the briefing are calculated using the Boeing fuel calculation document. Back when it was done it was working out the same as the examples in the document. Since a lot of work has gone in since, It could do with checking.

Since the range can be obtained from the de-brief:

Remember that this is the Range based on your way of flying the simulated aircraft in your simulator setup.

The range you use may be quite different to the real aircraft specifications.

[Orinks]

Okay, so this is without any payload. I just set it to use the CFG defaults and I'm still getting the same results for fuel. The fuel requested is what I want in fuel remaining. Also changed the range.

So here's the first bit regarding fuel when I put the block fuel into the manual fuel entry:

Fuel Remaining: 956 Gal, Weight: 6406 Lb, 2906 kg
Fuel Requested: 2877 Gal, Weight: 19276 Lb, 8743 kg
Fuel Required: 2874 Gal, Weight: 19256 Lb, 8734 kg
Maximum Fuel Load: 7500 Gal, Weight: 50250 Lb, 22793 kg

And then here's the quick information section which is a bit puzzling.

Flight Time: 1:48
Fuel Time: 2:18

Fuel Capacity: 50250 Lb, 22793 kg, 7500 Gal
Flight Fuel: 50250 Lb, 22793 kg, 7500 Gal
Reserve Fuel: 4180 Lb, 1896 kg, 624 Gal
Fuel Weight: 19276 Lb, 8743 kg, 2877 Gal

Empty Weight: 91110 Lb, 41327 kg
Payload: 0 Lb, 0 kg
Weight, Gross: 110386 Lb, 50070 kg, Max: 174200 Lb, 79016 kg

ZFW: 91110 Lb, 41327 kg
PLW: 95290 Lb, 43223 kg
TOGW: 110386 Lb, 50070 kg
TOW: 110386 Lb, 50070 kg
RESERVES: 4180 Lb, 1896 kg

It says that my flight fuel is full capacity, but my fuel weight is the correct number. Yet, I have fuel for 2 hours and 18 minutes. On max fuel it should be longer than that.

I regenerated the flight again with automatic fuel loading this time and get the same thing with extra fuel added.

Flight Time: 1:58
Fuel Time: 2:28

Fuel Capacity: 50250 Lb, 22793 kg, 7500 Gal
Flight Fuel: 50250 Lb, 22793 kg, 7500 Gal
Reserve Fuel: 4180 Lb, 1896 kg, 624 Gal
Fuel Weight: 20670 Lb, 9376 kg, 3085 Gal

Shouldn't the flight fuel be the fuel used on the flight itself? I'll go and check other aircraft to see if it says flight fuel at max capacity but that just looks wrong.

Well, after looking at my Airbus I have some unusable fuel of 28 Gal, but the flight fuel isn't 100 percent max capacity.

Flight Time: 1:59
Fuel Time: 2:28

Fuel Capacity: 42236 Lb, 19158 kg, 6304 Gal
Fuel Unuseable: 188 Lb, 85 kg, 28 Gal
Flight Fuel: 42048 Lb, 19073 kg, 6276 Gal
Reserve Fuel: 2768 Lb, 1256 kg, 413 Gal
Fuel Weight: 13903 Lb, 6306 kg, 2075 Gal

[Steve Waite]

Your range is what counts! Range is the maximum time of flight.

On max fuel you say that should allow you to fly longer - so you need to increase your Range parameter and the available flight time increases because you use less fuel per second.

Flight fuel includes all engine time. Look at your taxi time on the flight gen page - you burn fuel to get to the runway and back, and waiting.

I can't tell what the figures would be without the aircraft.cfg, the range you enter, the taxi time input in flight gen.

Set the aircraft in flight at cruise and get a fuel report, that gives you a good estimate of range. That's then divided by the time estimate of your flight from your cruise speeds set in the flight gen page.

[Steve Waite]

I have found a situation with IF weather that stops the flight build. A last minute change to some code inadvertently loses a value by accident in the build phase. I will have to repair and upload a new build...

[Steve Waite]

22/April/2020:

Latest IF versions include screen reader support and in-sim voice callouts by codelegend.com

Preview 15:

Ideal Flight Professional P3D v4
Ideal Flight 10 Professional P3D v3
Ideal Flight 10 Special Edition
Ideal Flight 10 Original
Please note only versions IFPro for P3D v4 and IF10SE>augmented for FSX feature the accessible Voice and Assistant functions.

Preview 15 fixes an issue with IF weather and flight build fails.

[Steve Waite]

Now we can build flights reliably we can look at the fuel. The problem was a value in the weather was dropped due to a problem with me pressing keys on the keyboard.

At first inspection it seems to be that the quick section "Flight Fuel" reported in the briefing is the wrong value. The actual Fuel Weight shown is the real value and the same as loaded in the plane at the start.

[Steve Waite]

...In the briefing quick section, the field Flight Fuel is reported incorrectly, it is showing the maximum fuel less the taxi and reserves. Instead it should show the fuel load less the taxi and reserves.

Choosing to build a flight in the Mooney (for examples I use an aircraft we are both guaranteed to have in the hangar). In the quick section of the briefing I got:

Fuel Capacity: 570 Lb, 259 kg, 95 Gal
Fuel Unuseable: 36 Lb, 16 kg, 6 Gal
Flight Fuel: 518 Lb, 235 kg, 86 Gal
Taxi Fuel: 16 Lb, 7 kg, 3 Gal
Reserve Fuel: 32 Lb, 15 kg, 5 Gal
Fuel Weight: 309 Lb, 140 kg, 51 Gal

After fixing I now get:
Flight Fuel: 257 Lb, 117 kg, 43 Gal

All other values appear to be correct and the aircraft is properly loaded. I'll be doing some more checks.

The range can be approximated by loading the plane and putting it at normal cruise conditions and using the fuel report a few times till you get a settled value. The fuel in use at that time is extrapolated to the range available from the maximum fuel load less the unusable fuel.

[Orinks]

I know that you can move the briefing sections around, but can you move individual parts of sections? For example I'd like to move the fuel weight up to the top of the briefing where it gives the fuel capacity, fuel remaining and max fuel.

[Steve Waite]

No there's no functions to change the items in a section just yet unless you edit the briefing html in Notepad before the flight - CONTROL+X the lines and CONTROL+V the lines to place above. The items within a section are in simple text. I will see about changing it for you.