Wed, Jun 08, 2005
Predicted To Save GA Pilots $700 Million In Annual Fuel
Costs
True Flight says it's released two new functions -- its
exclusive Fastest Flight Level Search and Cheapest Fuel Price
Search for its Flight Cheetah portable displays and TrueMap
software packages with the WXWORX data link. Fastest Flight level
Search, which automatically computes the most favorable flight
level based on data link winds is expected to have the largest
impact on increasing routing efficiency since the introduction of
GPS Navigation and data link weather.
Wind speed and direction at different flight levels via the
WXWORX XM Radio data link is processed by the Flight Cheetah over
the entire course of the route. Next, the Flight Cheetah
automatically generates an in-flight report of estimated times
enroute with winds at not only the current flight level, but all
flight levels up to FL 480. Typically, total estimated time enroute
with winds will vary significantly from the previous method of
deriving the same information via the "instantaneous" ground speed
from GPS which in reality can vary significantly during the course
of the flight.
An additional set of information (available in the near future)
that will be presented to the pilot is the total fuel savings in
gallons at different flight levels over the course of the flight.
This data will be derived from the actual fuel burn performance
numbers of the aircraft. When this additional capability becomes
available pilots can select the fastest, the most economical or the
best combination of the two when selecting a flight level for their
route of flight.
The second function is the cheapest fuel price search, which
incorporates fuel price data from some 2,500 airports. Unlike many
existing fuel data prices that are currently available in the field
this data is updated by personally contacting each airport by phone
for improved accuracy. The Flight Cheetah makes finding the
cheapest fuel price easy, by displaying airports in ascending
order, starting first with airports with the lowest prices on the
moving map.
AOPA estimates some 1,334,000,000 gallons are consumed by
General Aviation annually. The cheapest fuel price search, used in
conjunction with the Fastest Flight Level Search could represent
savings of some estimated 746 million annually to the general
aviation public. This is based on the assumption of a modest
reduction of 7% in-flight times and an average savings of 35 cents
per gallon. "This is the first step towards taking data link to the
next level past simply providing only weather information to now
saving real money for the consumer" said President Robert
Kalberer.
As an example, a typical twin engine aircraft burning 30 gallons
an hour at the rate of 150 hours a year would experience an
estimated $2,300 savings in fuel costs.
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