Flight Planning, Fuel Management and Dispatch Procedures
Flight Planning
Build the plan from the ground up
A dispatch flight plan chains: routing (airways, PBN specifications, NOTAMs, overflight permissions), level (optimum versus maximum, step climbs, semicircular rule), wind and temperature (track, wind correction angle, ground speed), then time and fuel for every segment.
Use the wind triangle: TAS along heading plus the wind vector gives ground speed along track. Quick approximations get you within a degree or two: wind correction angle is approximately (crosswind / TAS) x 60 degrees, and headwind component is approximately wind speed x cosine of the angle off track. A great circle is the shortest path on a sphere; a rhumb line is constant track. On long legs the difference matters, on short ones it does not.
PBN and ETOPS planning add the equal time point, the en-route alternate, and the weather minima applicable at that alternate. Confirm whether a destination alternate is required; the common 1-2-3 rule requires one when, for one hour before to one hour after ETA, the ceiling is below 2,000 ft or visibility below 3 SM.
Worked example. Track 090, TAS 400 kt, wind 360 at 40 kt. Crosswind is 40 kt, so WCA is approximately (40 / 400) x 60 = 6 degrees into wind, heading 084. Headwind component is zero, so ground speed stays near 400 kt and an 800 NM leg takes about 2 hours.
Fuel Management and Dispatch Procedures
The fuel figure is a legal number
Standard planning builds up: taxi fuel, trip fuel, contingency (commonly 5% of trip, reducible to 3% only where an en-route alternate is available under the applicable rule), alternate fuel, final reserve (typically 30 minutes holding at 1,500 ft above the alternate), and additional fuel for MEL items, ETOPS, icing or ATC constraints.
In flight, actual burn is compared with plan at each waypoint. When fuel trends below plan, re-plan early: change level, change route, change destination. Declared states matter. MINIMUM FUEL means you expect to land with less than final reserve plus planned alternate fuel. MAYDAY FUEL means you expect to land below final reserve. The second is an emergency; the first is not, but both require ATC notification.
Traps: confusing trip fuel with block fuel; omitting taxi burn from tankering decisions; mixing mass and volume, since fuel density varies with temperature so litres are not a fixed mass; assuming alternate fuel covers a hold; and forgetting that tankering raises landing weight and burn.
Worked example. Trip 3,000 kg, contingency 5% = 150 kg, alternate 800 kg, final reserve 30 minutes at 1,200 kg/h = 600 kg, taxi 100 kg. Minimum ramp fuel = 3,000 + 150 + 800 + 600 + 100 = 4,650 kg.