MRJT Additional Procedures — Page 127, Lesson 124

I want to walk you through a worked example of a flight plan for the MRJT — that's the Medium Range Jet Transport, essentially a Boeing 737-type aircraft. This is a real, practical demonstration of how all the fuel planning, route planning, and performance data we've been studying come together in a single document. Let's start with the basics of this particular flight. The departure is Gatwick, which has the ICAO code EGKK, and the destination is Frankfurt, code EDDF. We're cruising at Mach 0.8, flying under IFR — Instrument Flight Rules — and the date is given as month/day/year, though the specific date isn't filled in here. The computation time and expected time of departure are noted, and importantly, this plan is based on the meteorological forecast from midnight on the 30th of September. All weights are in kilograms. Now, let's look at the weight breakdown, because this is the core of any flight plan. We have AV PLD, which stands for available payload — that's the revenue-generating load like passengers, baggage, and cargo. Then OPLN WT means operational weight — that's the weight of the aircraft empty, plus crew, catering, and everything needed to operate the flight, but before fuel and payload are added. The POA, or point of arrival, is EDDF, Frankfurt. For this route, we have 3,091 kilograms of route fuel, a flight time of 55 minutes, and a route distance of 362 nautical miles. The expected arrival time is 1925Z — that's 19:25 Zulu time, which is the same as UTC. The take-off weight is 77,390 kilograms, the landing weight is 74,299 kilograms, and the operational weight — that's the weight less fuel and payload — is 58,638 kilograms. For the alternate, we have ALT, which is EDDL, Dusseldorf. The diversion fuel is 1,485 kilograms, with a diversion time of 24 minutes. The expected arrival time at the alternate is 1949Z, and the diversion wind component is 15 knots headwind, shown as a minus sign. Now let's go through the fuel breakdown, because this is where precision really matters. HLD is holding fuel, 1,521 kilograms — that's the fuel reserved for holding patterns if we can't land immediately. CON is contingency fuel, 155 kilograms, which is calculated as 5% of the 3,091 kilograms of route fuel. REQ is the fuel required, less taxi and start-up fuel, for the entire route — that's 6,252 kilograms. XTR is extra fuel, which we can add if required for any reason. Finally, TOT is the total fuel on board, and it's also expressed as an equivalent time — that's the time to empty the tanks at the current fuel flow. Let's look at the route summary. We depart using the Dover6M Standard Instrument Departure, or SID, to the Dover VOR, which has the identifier DVR. From there, we route on Upper Airway UG1 to the Nattenheim VOR, identifier NTM, and then we follow the Nattenheim1A Standard Arrival Route, or STAR, into Frankfurt. For the wind conditions, the average wind component for the route is 29 knots tailwind, shown as a plus sign. We also have MXSH, which stands for maximum windshear — an increase in speed of 5 knots per 1,000 feet at the KOK VOR. This strength of windshear is significant because it indicates that clear air turbulence, abbreviated TURB, is a possibility. It also means that a climb to a higher level could produce better fuel economy — you'd get a higher ground speed and a lower fuel flow. The average temperature is minus 1 degree Celsius. Now, here's an important calculation. NAM stands for nautical air miles — that's the distance the aircraft travels through the air mass, as opposed to over the ground. The calculation shown is: 362 NGM, which is nautical ground miles, minus the product of 29 knots tailwind times 55 minutes divided by 60. That gives us 335 nautical air miles. So the formula is: NAM = NGM minus (wind component times time in hours). Since we have a tailwind, the air distance is less than the ground distance. For the flight level, we have a pressure altitude of 37,000 feet, which is Flight Level 370. That's the chosen cruising altitude for this flight. The next lines show an analysis of the long-range cruise fuel and flight times for FL370, FL330, and FL410 — so the planner has considered multiple altitude options. The elevation of Gatwick airfield is 202 feet. Now let's go through the column headings in the flight plan log. AWY is the airway designator — the name of the airway we're flying on. WPT is the navigation waypoint and its identifier. MTR is the magnetic track. DFT is drift. ZD is the zone, leg, or sector distance. ZT is the zone, leg, or sector elapsed time in hours and minutes. ETA and ATA are estimated and actual time of arrival, logged when airborne. CT is the accumulative flight time. WIND is the wind velocity, given as a five-figure group — for example, 27 means 270 degrees true, and 045 means 45 knots. COMP is the wind component. GRS is ground speed. DSTR is the total distance remaining. REM is the kilograms of fuel remaining. We also have MSA, which is the zone, leg, or sector minimum safe altitude, and FRQ, which is the radio frequency of the navigational beacon at the waypoint. Two critical abbreviations: TOC means top of climb, and TOD means top of descent — these are the points where we transition between climb, cruise, and descent phases. The elevation of Frankfurt is 364 feet. Lines 43 to 46 contain waypoint coordinates for entry into the Flight Management Computers, if required. And finally, line 47 shows the accumulative elapsed times, from take-off, to the Brussels and Rhein Flight Information Region, or FIR, boundaries. This is a complete, professional flight plan — every number and abbreviation has a specific meaning and purpose in ensuring a safe, efficient, and legal flight.