I tried searching, but didn’t see anything. Apologies if I missed a post on this. I’m just wondering what input field in the Fuel section of the New Flight Plan form is linked to the ACF line on the UAL2018 flight plan format, if any. I’d love to run plans that more cloesly match real UAL flight plans.
Many thanks.
Tony
Hi Tony,
I’ve just added this feature in version 2.19.0. You can now control the ACF fuel line using the Extra Fuel option in the Fuel Planning section.
For example, to reproduce the ACF line in the UAL 2018 format, you should set the Reserve Fuel option to a fixed amount (i.e. 30 minutes) and make sure to select either ACF90 or ACF99 as the Extra Fuel label:
Best regards,
That’s awesome! Thank you for all of the constant effort you put into SimBrief! It’s a fantastic tool.
Can I make one suggestion? When using an ACF value, can you have it populate it on the UAL2018 format between “CAPT” and “PLAN T/O”, replacing the “N/A” line that exists there already.
If not, of course this is still wonderful. Thank you again!
-Tony
Hi Tony,
The examples I’ve seen placed the ACF line near the top below “FAR”. Maybe the placement depends on the type of flight being conducted, Domestic/Flag/B343 or something?
Let me know if you have any details on which circumstances the ACF line gets placed at the top versus the bottom and I will adjust it accordingly.
Cheers,
On my fleet, the ones I’ve seen only show up down low where I described. This is significant because it’s below the “MIN T/O” line, which we describe as the “regulatory” line and everything below that is “company.” I’ll ask my dispatcher friend if it ever shows up anywhere else.
So when the flight plan is run using B343, then the ACF becomes part of the “PBCF,” or “Performance Based Contingency Fuel” and goes “above the line” near the top. “The line,” being the MIN T/O that I mentioned delineates regulatory from company for us. In all other cases, like the plans I see on the planes I fly, it goes “below the line” and falls below CAPT and above MIN T/O.
Let me know if that doesn’t make sense, and I can reword my explanation. 
That makes sense and is what I expected actually. So the question now is how to best program this into SimBrief.
Can it be assumed that for international flights, the ACF is always used in conjunction with PBCF? In other words, is it possible for an international flight to have discretionary ACF below the MIN T/O line, or does that only happen for domestic flights normally?
Cheers,
Well - let me ask. I know that I’ve flown international flights on my fleet that don’t utilize PBCF - basically FAA domestic reserves with ACF below the MIN T/O line. This is facilitated by an Ops Spec (A012) that allows part 121 domestic ops to certain airports outside the 48 contiguous United States.
Does SimBrief have a B343 function? Ideally, you’d link it to B343 and if B343=yes, then ACF=the above the line location, and if B343=no, then ACF=the below the line location.
Not currently. I’ll try to add one after the holdiays.
Cheers,
I think that if you add B343, that would be the best trigger for putting ACF above the line. Thats the way I understand it currently. All of my international flights have ACF below the line, and that’s probably because we don’t use B343 on these legs.
Happy Holidays! Thanks for all your work on SimBrief; it’s an amazing product!
B343 is based on the operator’s fuel burn history in the city pair, arrival time window, and equipment type. At UAL, on a B343 flight plan, ACF, their PBCF fuel, is above the line and is a substitute for the 10% flag reserve. Domestically, their ACF is not required to be aboard at takeoff, and is below the line. That being said, B343 isnt the same across all operators in a given city pair; it’s based on how that flight performs in terms of planned burn vs actual burn over time.
Okay, that greatly improves my understanding of B343 and why ACF falls above the line on a B343 plan and below the line on all the plans I see. The international flight plans I’m used to looking at use A012 to be treated like domestic flights. For some reason I thought B343 was just an authorization to use less than normal Int’l reserves, missing the whole PBCF piece.
Lets say you have a flight from JFK-LHR, arriving LHR at 0800A local time, operated with a 777-200LR, and that you as an operator have flown this flight 500 times within the past two years (730 days). Ranking all the variations from planned burn over that population of flights, the lowest overburn is 0.2% above planned, and the highest is at 3.5% over planned. All the overburns are ranked as a percentage from 0 to 100, and whatever %-age is at the 90% confidence level, becomes the ACF90 value (let’s say its 1%), and whatever %-age is at the 99%, lets say its a 3.5% becomes the ACF99 value.
What the UA DX will do is if there is no convective WX one hour before/after ETA, will select the ACF90 value; and if there is convective WX an hour before/after ETA will get the ACF99,and SABRE will load the time value of that %-age onto that flight, with a minimum time value of 5 minutes.
Let’s say its hard VFR at LHR for the ETA (so ACF90 which lets say is 6 minutes for this flight), but there is a front spawning all types of hell at 30W, you still select the ACF90 value, then add dispatcher add fuel to account for the front at 30W. But, if there are no concrete constraints enroute, there is no reason to add gas as the PBCF value should cover what this flight would need.
If the operator has never done this flight, they can use a 5% value; and there are also minimum ops counts to validate %-ages used for the ACF90 (a minimum of 60 ops) and 99 (a minimum of 120 ops).
Thanks for the info @dougsnow and @Lseatflyr !
I might be able to add some better support for B343 in the coming days.
Cheers,
Hi again, I have now updated SimBrief as follows:
FAA (B343) reserve fuel option has been added.FAA (B343) and do not set a minimum FOD value, reserve fuel will default to 30 minutes + 10% burn.FAA (B343) and you do have a minimum FOD value, it will use 30 minutes + 5% burn (the operator is considered to have an approved minimum landing fuel program).FAA (B343) and also specify ACF90 or ACF99 fuel, this will be used as PBCF fuel and will be above the line.FAA (B343) reserves, any ACF90 or ACF99 fuel will appear below the line.Let me know if this works as it should, thanks!
Almost
The PBCF value goes into the contingency fuel bucket. So I would expect to see
CIRRUS FLT PLAN FTD.WELCH EXT.93007 ACARS.LHRSBRG
P 1 OF 26 XXX6083/31 CAN-CDG ETD 1320/31DEC23 B77L N840FD
C/S XXX6083 P 8.0 ZGGG-LFPG P 1.0 T/O SLOT ....
491.7 ZFW .... 0120 ATA .... TNKS .... ADVISORY INFORMATION
NO STATS AVAILABLE
766.0 TOW .... 1320 ATD .... USED ....
514.2 LAW .... 1200 TOT .... LEFT ....
173.7 PL .... HOLD W A .... ACH FL ....
TRIM ..... MIN COST VAR SPD - FP NO. 1 1259 31DEC23
ROUTE DEFRTE S0780 MASRO/S0840 IGNAK/S0810 WFX/S0840 SALMO/S0920
SARIN/FL300 MASAV/FL320 UTEKA/FL340 AKABI/FL330 HOC/FL340
PENDU/FL350 GIVRI/FL340
TIF ...... 251815 13.50 5939NM W/C M48 TOC OAT M27
CONT 2PCT... 5036 17 WIND 26079
DIVF ...... 5251 24 ORY /LFPO FL080 M15 63NM
RES ...... 6790 30 PLAN REM 22.5 TOT RES 12.0
REQ ...... 268892 15.01 COST INDEX 150
EXTRA ...... 5438 15 WX ATC ......
TAXI ...... 1400 (20) ELEV CAN R01 50
TANKS ...... 275730 LB ELEV CDG R27R 392
TWO SEVEN FIVE SEVEN THREE ZERO LB **FMC DRAG/FF P 0.0/ P 0.0**
ALT SUMMARY DIST TRK FL COMP TIME FUEL DIV SPD SCHED
ORY/LFPO C1 63 201 080 M11 00.24 5251 COST INDEX 0
BRU/EBBR C2 183 032 220 P17 00.39 9793
LGG/EBLG C3 222 047 220 P22 00.47 11254
LGW/EGKK C4 186 321 240 M20 00.41 10451
WEIGHT CHANGE P/M 1000 KG FP 269/FM 391 LB TP 0 TRIP FUEL
SPEED CHANGE CI 0 / M0.78 FM 2866 LB TP 47 TRIP FUEL
As opposed to
CIRRUS FLT PLAN FTD.WELCH EXT.93007 ACARS.LHRSBRG
P 1 OF 26 XXX6083/31 CAN-CDG ETD 1320/31DEC23 B77L N840FD
C/S XXX6083 P 8.0 ZGGG-LFPG P 1.0 T/O SLOT ....
487.0 ZFW .... 0120 ATA .... TNKS .... ADVISORY INFORMATION
NO STATS AVAILABLE
766.0 TOW .... 1320 ATD .... USED ....
514.2 LAW .... 1200 TOT .... LEFT ....
169.1 PL .... HOLD W A .... ACH FL ....
TRIM ..... MIN COST VAR SPD - FP NO. 2 1304 31DEC23
ROUTE DEFRTE S0780 MASRO/S0840 IGNAK/S0810 WFX/S0840 SALMO/S0920
SARIN/FL300 MASAV/FL320 UTEKA/FL340 AKABI/FL330 HOC/FL340
PENDU/FL350 GIVRI/FL340
TIF ...... 251815 13.50 5939NM W/C M48 TOC OAT M27
CONT 0PCT... 0 WIND 26079
DIVF ...... 5302 24 ORY /LFPO FL080 M15 63NM
RES ...... 10666 47 PLAN REM 27.2 TOT RES 16.0
REQ ...... 267783 15.01 COST INDEX 150
EXTRA ...... 11220 30 WX ATC ......
TAXI ...... 1400 (20) ELEV CAN R01 50
TANKS ...... 280403 LB ELEV CDG R27R 392
TWO EIGHT ZERO FOUR ZERO THREE LB **FMC DRAG/FF P 0.0/ P 0.0**
ALT SUMMARY DIST TRK FL COMP TIME FUEL DIV SPD SCHED
ORY/LFPO C1 63 201 080 M11 00.24 5302 COST INDEX 0
BRU/EBBR C2 183 032 220 P17 00.39 9836
LGG/EBLG C3 222 047 220 P22 00.47 11300
LGW/EGKK C4 186 321 240 M20 00.41 10492
WEIGHT CHANGE P/M 1000 KG FP 269/FM 391 LB TP 0 TRIP FUEL
SPEED CHANGE CI 0 / M0.78 FM 2866 LB TP 47 TRIP FUEL
The reason is, for those operators who have B343, if the crew loses the time value of the PBCF fuel once airborne, that is a required discussion between the crew and the dispatcher because they are now burning into their final reserve fuel. Their final reserve is always 30 minutes; the additional 17 minutes in this 2% PBCF case from CAN to CDG just has to be aboard at brake release; it is there to be burned and does not have to be protected in the FMS as FMS reserves; putting it into the RES bucket and it is being protected.
Thanks Doug,
Sorry, I should have mentioned that the only formats that currently depict this correctly are: DAL, SWA, and UAL 2018. Can you check those ones and see if they’re better?
I’ll try to update the other formats soon, time permitting.
Best regards,
UAL2018 looks good.
KMEMLFPG_PDF_1704062495.pdf (simbrief.com)
Neither SWA nor DAL have B343 - its current use is limited to AAL and UAL. I hear that UPS is working towards it, but I don’t have an updated timeline on when they’ll expect to be awarded it. DAL is awaiting a new flight planning system before they’ll even start to seek it. DAL has signed a Proof of Concept, but I have no idea on timeframe, or what the new DAL format could look like, and I guess that DAL doesn’t know either.
As a dispatcher under EASA Regulations, you just lost me… 
Hello again. I am trying to get B343 and 5% burn. So I enter a minimum block fuel. Still the result is 10%. What do I need to do to get the 5% burn?