Ahlfors From Canada, joined Oct 2000, 1298 posts, RR: 7 Posted (10 years 9 months 1 week 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 1137 times:
Hello everyone.
I am looking for data on aircraft fuel consumption and I keep on coming up with only the cruise altitude fuel consumption. How much extra is needed for takeoff and landing (excluding reserves).
For example, if I have an aircraft with a fuel consumption of 3000L/h, how much fuel would I need for a:
1 h flight
4 h flight
10 h flight
???
These times include a normal takeoff and landing.
I know the numbers are different depending on the aircraft type, but I'm just looking for a general figure like do I add an extra hours fuel for each flight.
Sabenapilot From Belgium, joined Feb 2000, 2663 posts, RR: 51 Reply 1, posted (10 years 9 months 1 week 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 1108 times:
ok,
I can only give you a general answer to your very general question, but as a rule you can use that a plane consumes about 25% fuel more on the first flight hour then on the rest of the flight hours.
So, if you take a plane burning off 3000l/h in cruise, then on it's first flight hour (so including the take-off and climb out) it will actually burn around 3750l.
On a 4 hour flight it'll use: 3750 + 3 X 3000 = 12,750l
On a 10 hour flight it'll burn: 3750 + 9 x 3000 = 30,750l
On the other hand,
since in descent a plane consumes less fuel then in cruise, the fuel consumption during the last hour of the flight will be lower then the normal 3000l resulting in a total fuel consumption somewhat lower then the result found with this simplified rule.
Also, the cruise fuel flow should be getting smaller during flight as the weight of the plane reduces, but that's an even more complicated relation so you might want to forget about that as well...
If you use the above rule of thumb however, you should be getting a result which is close to and on the safe side of what is called the trip fuel (i.e. the fuel to go from A to B without the fuel to go to the alternate).
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