coma24
Line Up and Wait
I'm undertaking a fairly hefty flight next week (N07-KFTW-KSAV-N07). I've done a flight similar to this before and have planned my fuel stops to include the cheapest fuel prices I can find, although I filled up at the big airports on both occasions due to time constraints.
This time I plan on avoiding filling at the expensive places, even if it means adding a extra stops to replace them.
I thought I'd throw it out to the group to see if anyone was able to find a better plan than what I have in mind at the moment.
The maximum leg length is 650nm. Assume we're leaving N07 with full fuel.
The goal is to minimize the total fuel cost. One other requirement is that I want to minimize the number of fuel stops between FTW and SAV due to time constraints on that particular day.
I'll post what I have now as a benchmark:
N07-I42 (fuel stop) $5.25/gal
I42-KSWI (fuel stop) $4.25/gal
KSWI-KFTW (destination. NOT PICKING UP FUEL)
KFTW-KEET (fuel stop) $5.15/gal
KEET-KSAV (destination, NOT PICKING UP FUEL)
KSAV-KBNL (fuel stop) $5.25/gal
KBNL-N07
My prior plan was: N07-KOWB-KFTW-KMNE-KSAV-N07 with fuel stops at each. The new method has 2 extra fuel stops because it avoids fueling at FTW and SAV.
Here's the link for the current plan:
http://skyvector.com/?ll=35.1360822...4.KFTW:A.K7.KEET:A.K7.KSAV:A.K7.KBNL:A.K6.N07
Distance: 2679.4nm (assuming direct on each leg, which won't quite be the case)
Total time at cruise speed: 13hr 36min (197ktas)
approx fuel burned: 140 gallons
saving $1-$2/gal on the fill ups will yield $140-$280 cost saving. My 'extra' fuel stops are occurring on days where my schedule is more flexible.
Any ideas for optimizing this?
This time I plan on avoiding filling at the expensive places, even if it means adding a extra stops to replace them.
I thought I'd throw it out to the group to see if anyone was able to find a better plan than what I have in mind at the moment.
The maximum leg length is 650nm. Assume we're leaving N07 with full fuel.
The goal is to minimize the total fuel cost. One other requirement is that I want to minimize the number of fuel stops between FTW and SAV due to time constraints on that particular day.
I'll post what I have now as a benchmark:
N07-I42 (fuel stop) $5.25/gal
I42-KSWI (fuel stop) $4.25/gal
KSWI-KFTW (destination. NOT PICKING UP FUEL)
KFTW-KEET (fuel stop) $5.15/gal
KEET-KSAV (destination, NOT PICKING UP FUEL)
KSAV-KBNL (fuel stop) $5.25/gal
KBNL-N07
My prior plan was: N07-KOWB-KFTW-KMNE-KSAV-N07 with fuel stops at each. The new method has 2 extra fuel stops because it avoids fueling at FTW and SAV.
Here's the link for the current plan:
http://skyvector.com/?ll=35.1360822...4.KFTW:A.K7.KEET:A.K7.KSAV:A.K7.KBNL:A.K6.N07
Distance: 2679.4nm (assuming direct on each leg, which won't quite be the case)
Total time at cruise speed: 13hr 36min (197ktas)
approx fuel burned: 140 gallons
saving $1-$2/gal on the fill ups will yield $140-$280 cost saving. My 'extra' fuel stops are occurring on days where my schedule is more flexible.
Any ideas for optimizing this?
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