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Fuel Remaining Onboard.. HP7

Posted: 26 Jun 2008, 00:52
by DaveB
Hi Guy's..

Our Herald fleet is sadly lacking in any form of realistic fuel remaining onboard and I'm doing my best to work through the fleet to address this. On my usual figures.. the Herald runs around 800kgph in the cruise so I've set a target figure to be left in excess of 1000kg. I've done the aircraft at Southend and Norwich and am chipping away at the remainder.

If any of you pick up a Herald.. can you do your best to up it's static fuel level to around the 1000kg mark. I appreciate it will cut your profit for two flights but when it's done.. it's done ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Re: Fuel Remaining Onboard.. HP7

Posted: 26 Jun 2008, 07:47
by fighterpilot
Indeed Dave since the problem of fuel remaining was brought up recently, (my fault i know) i have been trying to leave all aircraft i fly with a decent reserve onboard. It is incredible how little fuel some A/C have. When fuelling up however is it more economical to take it in one big hit or over a number of legs building the reserve up slowly? I noticed the hp7 fleet at Dyce were fairly low as well as a number of DH89's at Kirkwall. On my way back down from some highlands and islands flying in the Rapide and i will try and leave a decent reserve in my herald currently at Kirkwall.

Sorry for a fairly long post.

Richard

Re: Fuel Remaining Onboard.. HP7

Posted: 26 Jun 2008, 09:19
by DaveB
Hi Richard :)

Tks for that ;-) Yes.. 1 of the HP7's up at Dyce has 46kg onboard I think :o I try and do it over a couple of flights for the minimum hit if possible but in some cases I've tanked up over 3 or 4 flights and once (yesterday).. I ended up throwing the lot in in one go. I was doing Southend to Ostend (Ostend is only 1.12ltr) so was taking about 40% extra on the outbound and 60% on the way back. Don't ask me exactly what I hit but as I turned off the runway and came to a stop.. my finger slipped off ctrl+. onto something else.. the screen cleared.. and when it came back, I was sitting at the start of the runway at Ostend in a Cessna!! :o :o :o
While deciding what I should do next.. I heard the 'bing bong' :worried:

I quickly went onto FlyNET to check the flight which showed 30mins (correct) and a block fuel of 1242kg (very much incorrect)!! The percentage fuel remaining when the pc went from HP7 to Cessna was obviously the cause and FlyNET recorded the fuel remaining in the Cessna :'( What a waste :brick: Actual block fuel is around 350 - 380kg for that flight and by this time.. I was getting fed up of doing EGMC-EBOS so put 1400kg in for the return. The way I look at it is any profit is better than no profit at all and as long as you don't put in more fuel than the cost/return made off the pax tickets.. you should get a profit. If you intend to fly the same aircraft again.. it doesn't matter much as you can take advantage of an increased profit for the next flight ;-)

I'm not sure what to do with the Rapides as I think an hours extra gas might be a little unrealistic but that said.. I've left the recent ones I've flown with in excess of 57kg onboard where possible and this equates to an hour in the cruise :)

A word of caution to you all.. DON'T HIT CTRL+/ or CTRL+, instead of CTRL+. !! :roll:

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Re: Fuel Remaining Onboard.. HP7

Posted: 26 Jun 2008, 18:30
by fighterpilot
i had a similar problem some time ago whilst flying the viking in Africa, was just on finals and must have pressed something wrong and was back at the departure airport about an hour and a half back as though i had never taken off. Very frustrating. :@

Richard

Re: Fuel Remaining Onboard.. HP7

Posted: 27 Jun 2008, 15:20
by DaveB
Richard..

There is now only one Herald left with short fuel and this is the one you last flew before picking up a Rapide. I see that you're currently in Fair Isle with no flight booked so as I'm in the area.. I'll nip and tank that last Herald up.. returning it to it's current location asap just in case you intend another flight ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Re: Fuel Remaining Onboard.. HP7

Posted: 27 Jun 2008, 16:33
by fighterpilot
Is that the aircraft at EGPA i intend to book a flight from fair isle tonight and then take the HP7 back to Dyce. I didn't fully tank her but was going to leave a decent reserve on the return flight to dyce.

Richard

Re: Fuel Remaining Onboard.. HP7

Posted: 27 Jun 2008, 16:54
by DaveB
Hi Richard..

Yup.. AYMG. It's back at Kirkwall now with 1223kg onboard. All yours sir ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Re: Fuel Remaining Onboard.. HP7

Posted: 27 Jun 2008, 17:39
by fighterpilot
Thank you Dave will jump in her later.

Richard

Re: Fuel Remaining Onboard.. HP7

Posted: 28 Jun 2008, 02:08
by fighterpilot
Hi Dave, having complted my flight in the herald i noticed quite a difference between yours and my fuelburn, mine about a 100 kilos more than yours. I would be interested to know what power settings and flight level etc you used.

RIchard

Re: Fuel Remaining Onboard.. HP7

Posted: 28 Jun 2008, 09:24
by DaveB
Hi Richard :)

Well.. it depends on what altitude I fly at but for the most part, I don't go higher than 9000ft as much of the Herald routes are short. At this alt.. she burns 800kgh at a normal Dart cruise of 14000rpm/192kias +/-. For shorter flights than 100nm.. I sometimes fly at 6000ft which gives a higer burn of around 840kgh (decreasing to a steady 837kgh) and a slightly higher airspeed of between 199 and 201kias.

Throttles are set at 14000rpm at takeoff and left there until descent. If I'm in a hurry.. descent is done at 10-10200rpm and if not, at flight idle (reduce the throttle until the red lamp shines on the U/C indicator then forward until the lamp extinguishes) ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab: