Flight Planning, Performance, and Loading
Flight planning ties weather, fuel, weight and balance, and aircraft performance into a legal and safe plan. Know the fuel requirement: enough to destination plus alternate plus reserve, with the reserve defined by regulation and the type of flight. Understand how to compute true airspeed from indicated altitude and temperature, and groundspeed from wind components. Study takeoff and landing distance charts: pressure altitude, temperature, weight, wind, and runway slope all shift the result, and contaminated-runway corrections are applied separately. Weight and balance requires computing the center of gravity from moments and confirming it falls within the envelope for takeoff and landing.
Traps include using indicated instead of calibrated airspeed, ignoring the effect of a tailwind on landing distance, and forgetting that zero-fuel weight limits are separate from maximum takeoff weight. Questions often present a chart with a temperature between tabulated values, requiring interpolation. Another frequent trap is treating the alternate fuel as usable for holding-reserve fuel is not available for planning.
Rule of thumb: add about 2% to takeoff ground roll for each 1% of uphill slope, and remember that a 10% weight increase raises takeoff distance roughly 20%. Worked example: at 4,000 ft pressure altitude and 30 °C, a chart shows 2,400 ft ground roll and 4,300 ft over 50 ft. With a 10 kt headwind, apply the chart's headwind correction, then compare the result to the available runway plus clearway.