Flight Planning Software: Why Does it Matter?
Flight planning software is an important part of the whole business of flight planning. Good flight planning software can cut the time which flight planning takes quite drastically. It is only in recent years that airlines have been able to benefit from the considerably shorter times which it now takes to plan a flight. Previous to the digital revolution, the only way to create a reliable flight plan was to create it by hand. This of course involved many hours of careful calculations and plotting…in order to reduce risks, all calculations had to be checked and then re-checked. This of course cost a lot of money and saving money is important! Good software can save many hours of work and also creates super-reliable flight plans.
Flight Planning Software and Important Issues
Good Flight planning software is an integral part of a successful and safe flight. There are all manner of things to be taken into consideration when it comes to planning a flight be it commercial or private. First and foremost to consider is the flight’s route and a commercial flight which may be flying in busy air space needs to have the correct and safest route planned out for them in advance. Fuel consumption is another big issue. With fuel costs rocketing, all airlines are keen to save money and fuel where possible. A good flight plan can help economize on fuel by successfully predicting the altitude at which an aircraft will be flying at any one part of the journey as well as predicting the weather conditions which will be expected. Both of these issues can affect fuel consumption as during a flight, an aircraft will use more or less fuel depending on the altitude at which is flying and also depending upon the wind speed and direction. An aircraft with the wind behind it burns less than an aircraft flying into the wind. As all commercial aircraft need to carry not only the amount of fuel which they will need to get from A to B…they also need to carry reserve fuel in order that should unexpected circumstances occur, they can fly to an alternative airport, the issue of fuel is an important one; fuel weighs a lot and a heavy aircraft in turn, will burn more fuel. It stands to reason that flight planning software can help to accurately pinpoint the exact amount of reserve fuel needed for a craft to get to its alternate airport whilst still keeping the weight of the craft at the minimum necessary.
Some important points
We live in an age where technology has enabled us to take advantage of some of the finest minds in the world and at minimum cost. Maximising safety and comfort, flight planning today is worlds away from that of yesterday…and we still have the technology of tomorrow’s yet to look forward to.