For extreme non-hub flights what might be the best IF aircraft to get longest possible distance between shortest possible airfields?
I thought about this recently when I tried a long haul from Baguio City in the Philippines to a US destination.
I think I cheated with an a330 light on fuel, but got lucky with winds.
737 BBJ or -700. Got 15+ hours of flight time and is a narrow-body aircraft.
If you can manage a heavy 737 BBJ that’s probably your best bet (I did 20 hours, 6 minutes once). Although with the flight mechanics of this game just take a 777-200LR with max fuel and nothing else, redline the engines, and enjoy your 4000 foot takeoff into a 32 hour flight.
I actually wasn’t aware they had that kind of duration. Thank you, I’ll try it!
This is what I have on file for the 737-700 (which comes close enough to sharing its fuel burn with the BBJ that I didn’t bother testing both of them). The BBJ carries a little bit more fuel though I think so I calculated 19 hours flat for the -700 and 20 hours 2 minutes for the BBJ. Green is flying east and blue west, and those are load percentages on the left
I’m trying to understand how you could get 20hrs out of a 737. Who needs a wide body:) Again I’ve got to test this out.
All of them are pretty fuel efficient, I attached the load/altitude graph above if you want to take a look at it.
Extra tanks, unlike the A318 ACJ unfortunately
So when you got 20 hours, what was your load?
You mean the fuel storage to total weight is that much more than on the A318?
Entirely fuel. The -700 and BBJ have apparently been merged into one model (which I didn’t know) so now both of them can carry 15:13 fuel. I’m not sure if there’s a fuel burn difference to differentiate the two now but just try the BBJ.
My statement in a previous post about the -700 carrying less was incorrect, the second time I had written (20 hours) is what happens if you max out the fuel. This causes a load percentage of 113%, which is what accounts for the extra hour (I think - untested, it might actually be more because I swear it used to be 106% max). 13% load on a -700 is about 10000 pounds, so I would expect at least an extra hour and change out of it (maybe 20:30 possible).
But if you want to stay under MTOW 19 hours is probably reasonable.
Pertaining to the actual takeoff itself, it’s not really a worry. At 113%, flaps 15, 30% trim the aircraft will leave the ground around 130-135 knots which is achievable with less than 4000 feet of runway.
Ok thanks. I have a particular crazy long haul flight between short fields I now need to try. By short I mean in the 5000ft range. Out of curiosity I noticed the recent “stop the float early” hard landing injury incident recently reported at KSNA I think, has a length of 5709 ft (though of course near sea level).
Thanks for the duration info.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
