Flight planning series | Part 4 Flight plan & fuel planning

Welcome back to the fourth and final installment of the flight planning series. Also the part you have all been waiting for the Global release. Today I will walk you thru setting up this route and flight plan we have been planning throughout this series. I’ll give you all the tips, and tricks you need to complete a successful flight.


Weight & Balance

So let’s talk about our weight and balance. This is the page we will be adding fuel, passengers, and cargo.

This page is set up just as it has been with the addition of fuel. Everyone has been asking how do I plan for fuel? Well it’s actually a lot easier then it could be. So we could do the math figuring out our enroute time. Then how much fuel we burn per hour in lbs/kg, and multiplying that by our ETE (estimated time enroute)+ our reserve.

However Infinite Flight has already made that calculation. So all you need to know is your ETE (estimated time enroute) we know this from the very first part of the series.
IMG_6784

Our ETE is 5hrs 12 min so let’s say when we arrive at JFK we are unable to land. We need to go to an alternate airport. Let’s say that’s KPHL Philadelphia International. So that’s an extra 28min then add our 45min reserve on top of that gives us 1hr 15min roughly. I’m going to plan for 1hr 30min over. If you are close to MTOW (Maximum Takeoff Weight). I would add an extra half hour as you will burn more in the climb due to weight.

Fuel Reserve 45 minutes past the alternate airfield in cruise configuration


Flight plan

A lot of changes have taken place in global for filing your flight plan.
First off here is our route you can copy and paste this in if you wish.

KLAX FABIRA KLIPR KEGGS COOPP ORCKA NNAVY BLAZIN LAS BEALE NOOTN BETHL FREDD DICEE DVC KD48S KD51W KD54A KK57E KK57G SPI VHP ROD DJB JHW HOXIE DMACK STENT MAGIO LVZ JENNO HARTY MUGZY STW LENDY LGA KJFK


This is the format you will use to input an entire route into the search bar. You may copy and paste this to generate our flight plan.


NOTAMs (Notice to airmen)

Part of any good flight plan, and preparation is the checking of NOTAMS along the intended route. We will check our departure field.
IMG_6847
Then our arrival field
IMG_6846
None of these two have any NOTAMs associated with the field. They would be listed under the airport information tab.

Then lastly our enroute NOTAMs here I see 2 red circles along our route indicating a TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction) is in place. If we click on these we can gather that information.
IMG_6832IMG_6833

So these are from the surface-15,000 MSL. We will be much higher then that so they aren’t of concern to our flight. You may start seeing these more and more so always keep an eye out.


Amending your flight plan

Now we talked in Part 3 about how we don’t include the approach chart in our initial flight plan and why. So here is how we add when we know which runway will be in use. As well as how to change the flight plan due to weather or anything else that may arise. I’ll be going thru adding the approach.

Here we have our NAV log page. You will notice these new little buttons in the lower left hand corner.
IMG_6834
So here are there functions.

  • (-) deletes the selected waypoint
  • ACT LEG activates the leg you have selected. This comes in handy if you missed a turn
  • Clear as it implies clears the plan
  • Up/Down these arrows will move the selected leg up or down in the NAV log

So here is how we enter our approach. Search a waypoint one at a time. Don’t enter multiples as we did at first this will erase the entire plan.


Hit ok

Select that waypoint on the right top corner

It will bring it up just like before then click the + symbol. Don’t click the direct to symbol this will erase the flight plan

Select that way point at the bottom of the NAV log.

Use the up arrow to put it in place. Continue this process until you have your approach set up.

There is our approach :)


Well guys that concludes the flight planning series. I hope everyone enjoyed it, and learned from it. As always if you have any question feel free to ask in the comments below.

Enjoy global everyone, and I’ll see you in the skies ✌️

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I’m sure this is much easier than it actually sounds. Thanks for the tutorial

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Thanks so much, i’m sure that this is going to come in handy for me and many others! See ya in the skies :D

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I do have a question relating to the fuel calculation. The part for diversion or the like is clear, you add approx. 1h 30min. What about the time for taxiing at both airports? Is it included in your ETE?

If it’s a busy field maybe add another 10 minutes or just do a single engine taxi.

So it is not included in the ETE. Good to know as at busy airfield you’ll burn some fuel in the queue :)
Thank you for your quick response.

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Nope it’s not included the ETE is your enroute time.

Enjoyed, great info and very realistic

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@Brandon_Sandstrom

How do you dump fuel?

It’s only abalible on heavies, and supers. You just hit the fuel dump button. Then it will stop at MLW. Hopefully you won’t need to use it though ;)

Oh, I’m on a A319 so I guess that’s not a heavy then

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great, many thanks for doing this, really looking forwrd to doing advanced navigation so thank you for doing a tutorial on this.

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Yep no problem enjoy the release everyone.

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I had no idea at first that flight plan was something we could set up. Thank you for this thread. I learned a huge amount here :)

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The fact that we can copy paste flight plans and edit the order of waypoints are very useful new features I didn’t know about. Thanks for the tutorial. Really helpful.

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I just bookmarked this. I haven’t flown yet, just downloaded aircraft due to the servers, but I can’t wait to try these new things! (Especially copy and pasting the flight plan)

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I bookmarked it also for when the servers stop acting up. I’m just goi g to wait till school is out and I’m home before I try a full flight. Maybe then I’ll have better connection and access to the global expert server.

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When adding fuel in, I add the correct amount of fuel, but in the fuel remaining section in the HUD, it says that I have 78% and 6:00 remaining. I’m confused as to which is correct.

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So you are at 78% of the total fuel it can hold, and have a flight time of 6 hours and 0 minutes available.

Well I planned for YSSY to KSFO which is roughly 12 hours.