FL3XX offers different ways to calculate flight times. Here's what you need to know!
1. Default Calculation
By default, FL3XX calculates flight time based on Great Circle Distance and average historic winds. The calculation is augmented by the Flight Time Factor (setting in Aircraft) to allow for routing, and Flight Time Summand (setting in Aircraft) to allow for terminal procedures. This allows for fast and precise calculation of a realistic flight time.
This calculation does not consider no-fly zones. Obviously it cannot take into account extraordinary circumstances like traffic congestion, holdings or strong deviations from the average historic wind speed.
You can disable the calculation of average historic winds with the "Flight Time Calculation" setting in Admin Operator Settings / Common.
2. Flight Time Calibration
With the Calibration Report optimal values for Flight Time Factor and Flight Time Summand can be calculated.
Here's a step-by-step guide for calibrating the flight time:
- Go to Report -> Dispatch -> Flight Time Calibration
- Select a meaningful timeframe where you have enough verified post-flights in FL3XX. The more flights the better. 3 months is a good time frame
- Check the "Calibrate" checkbox
- Click "Generate Report". it will take some time (~20min). Don't click again before the report is finished
- The important part of the result is at the bottom of the page. You get for each aircraft a recommended value for Flight Time Constant and Flight Time Factor. With "Update Aircraft" you can directly update these values for the respective aircraft in Aircraft -> Operational
- In a case where you have the same Aircraft, copy the table to excel and calculate the averages. If you want the same calculation for each aircraft set the Flight time constant and Flight time factor in all Aircraft. e.g. Flight time constant = 11 and Flight time factor = 1.13
3. Taxi Time
You can choose whether you want to use the CFMU taxi times provided by FL3XX (you can see the values in the Airport entry), or a fixed taxi time per airport.
You can set fixed taxi times in the airport with a default set in Settings / Admin Operator Settings / Dispatch.
Depending on the settings we add Taxi Time to Flight Time to get Block Time.
4. Enhanced Flight Time Calculation
You have the option to use a flight planning grade flight time calculation. In the Itinerary in Sales, simply press the RocketRoute button and wait for the calculation to finish.
The new flight time will be calculated
- based on a valid IFR routing (including no-fly-zones that can be set up in Admin Operator Settings / Integrations / RocketRoute
- including real forecast winds (if the flight is in the next five days)
- or average historic winds (if the flight is more than five days in the future)
When the calculation finishes, a tooltip on the flight time indicates which calculation method is used.
