Hello!
I’m currently cruising over western China/southern Kazakhstan. I’m flying through 90 kt headwinds at M0.85 at FL350. With this headwind, I should be flying at about 410 kts ground speed, but I’m currently flying at 390 kts. The speed has been slowly decreasing for the past hour. On top of that, the throttle sometimes shoots up to 100% randomly, stays there for 10 seconds, goes down to 35-45% for 10 seconds, and then bounces back up to normal. What should I do?
Thanks!
Just let it bet it’s most likely gust. And the wind is slowly increasing which is why you gs is decreasing
It’s expected as you have a strong headwind. As for the throttle, the the winds gusting at all? Or rapidly changing in speed?
What are you flying with?
The wind has barely changed for about an hour now. The most it has gone was from 90 to 85, and that was over a five minute period. I’m flying a B77W.
Have you changed you alt all?
No, I’ve stayed at FL350 for the whole flight.
You probably suffer from sudden weather updates, I wouldn’t worry much.
Here you are.
Over India you’ve probably had some strong winds. The red line is about the path you flew.
You’re riding up along some headwinds right now
So basically, it should smoothen out entering Russia.
What about the throttle? The jumping to 100% has been wasting a lot of fuel and might not have enough to reach my destination.
*note: this happens even when the winds have not changed,
what’s your load currently?
I’m currently at 271,750 kg.
What’s that as a percentage? I use lbs so 😂
I’m at a 56% load. The throttle isn’t jumping as drastically anymore, but it’s enough to waste a lot of fuel.
Just tested it out, your about 56% if i’m correct.
Just rocketed on casual up to FL350 and sure enough the winds are gusting in the 80’s. You’ll be fine on fuel I’m pretty sure.
Okay. How do I stop it from jumping? Should I reset the speed for the autopilot?
No, your fine, it’s something that cannot be fixed unfortunately. It won’t effect your flight too much so don’t worry ;)
Don’t worry about it jumping. Remember, airspeed is a function of how fast the air moves in relation to your aircraft. To keep a constant airspeed, the throttle will make big changes, if there is a strong and/or gusting headwind.
When you descend, your throttle will be near idle, so your fuel burn will be lower too. You should be okay on fuel.
If you didn’t already, for future flights, check out www.fpltoif.com for flight planning. It’ll give you a more realistic estimate of how much fuel you should pack in, and the time it’ll take to get to your destination, factoring in the winds and all.
This topic was automatically closed 3 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
