Additions to Sim Brief Dispatch System

SimBrief Dispatch
1

G’Day all,

The other day I responded to a post on the Navigraph Facebook page, and I was asked by the moderator to post it to the Sim Brief Forum. I’m not sure if this has been raised up before or if it’s already a work in progress, however, see below.

"As a licensed Dispatcher. I’ve seen some items that I would normally be familiar with when working, predominately with ultra-long-haul international sectors, or domestic sectors that fly across in remote areas.

I don’t seem to see it on the Sim Brief flight plan page and whilst I have a feeling that you try to accommodate everyone from the serious players to the novice ones. I was wandering whether if it can be considered as a selected addon feature i.e., tick the box to request it option, of the following:

  1. Re-dispatch/Re-Clearance waypoint enroute or Re-Dispatch Alternate (particularly for ULH or weight limited remote area sectors)

  2. Scheduling for pre-filed flight plans. Instead of constantly having to build a flight plan each time for each flight from scratch. The next leg would be ready and mostly pre-filled, and just waiting to be greenlighted and submitted through to VATSIM or IVAO etc. Sought of like a traffic light system.

  3. This one is a bit of a Hail Mary. A version similar to TOPCAT that covers a larger range of aircraft take-off/landing performance parameters with different configurations.

Outside of that. Everything else works great and the linkup between SimBrief, Navigraph, Volanta, PACX… that’s excellent."

Appreciate you all hearing me out and I do hope the @SimBrief team and other personnel would consider the above and provide any relevant feedback.

Cheers,
Chuck

2

Hey @Captaincharbel13,

  1. Re-Clearance - in this case (at least according to EASA “Air Opertions”) you mean the Reduced Contingency Fuel Procedure?

  2. Great Idea!

  3. Great Idea as well. Would be way easier to determine the performance limited Take-Off Mass before dispatching the flight.

BR Alex

2 Likes
3

G’Day @Alpolex88

Appreciate your support, particularly with ideas 2 and 3, and your request on No. 1.

With regard to your response on No.1. No not exactly. the EASA Reduce Cont. Fuel Procedure is more in line with EU climate targets from my understanding.

What I was referring to re: No. 1 idea. I will give you an example:

"So, Air New Zealand have recently introduced direct Auckland-New York with the 787-9. However, they’ve been struggling to make the route direct on the return leg without suffering a significant weight penalty pending winds and are now on some return legs, diverting to Nadi, Fiji for fuel. This in its basic principle is Re-Dispatch.

So, what we would do in a dispatcher’s situation. Is that we would dispatch a flight with a potential re-dispatch waypoint en-route.

Meaning, by the time the aircraft reaches this waypoint. The flight plan would have already calculated prior to departing New York, how much fuel is required to continue to the destination, and how much fuel is required, and what route needs to be programed, to the chosen en-route alternate airport for a fuel stop.

So, if the aircraft has enough fuel at the re-dispatch waypoint to continue to its destination (Auckland) without infringing its alternate and reserve fuel. Then all is normal, and the flight can continue.

If however, the aircraft does not have enough fuel to reach its destination, it will then do what is known as a re-clearance from the re-dispatch waypoint and fly to its alternate to conduct a fuel stop which in this case would be Nadi."

The main purpose of this tool is to give pilots the latitude to think quickly and know that every potential angle has been calculated by the dispatcher, and they themselves don’t have to worry about doing all the work of planning the route, what the fuel burn is going to be, are they going to infringe alternate or reserve fuel etc. because the dispatcher has already calculated it through the flight plan system software, therefore reducing the workload in a high pressure situation.

I hope the above makes sense and hasn’t confused you in anyway. I have also added this YouTube video on Re-Dispatch for your reference.

PFPX Re-Dispatch Overview - YouTube

Kind Regards,
Charbel

4

Servus @Captaincharbel13,

thanks for your description. Your mentioned “Re-Clearance” procedure is now (at least for EASA’s latest EU VO 965/2012 “Air Operations”) the Reduced Contingency Fuel Procedure.

This is not linked to a selectable reduction of Contingency Fuel (5min, 5% TF, 3% TF + ERA, 20min, Stat.) but a complete different scenario.

AMC1 CAT.OP.MPA.150 (b) Fuel policy desribes under (b) Reduced contingency fuel (RCF) procedure as follows:

If the operator’s fuel policy includes pre-flight planning to a destination 1 aerodrome (commercial destination) with an RCF procedure using a decision point along the route and a destination 2 aerodrome (optional refuel destination), the amount of usable fuel, on board for departure, should be the greater of (b)(1) or (b)(2):

(1) The sum of:
(i) taxi fuel;
(ii) trip fuel to the destination 1 aerodrome, via the decision point;
(iii) contingency fuel equal to not less than 5 % of the estimated fuel consumption from the decision point to the destination 1 aerodrome;
(iv) alternate fuel or no alternate fuel if the decision point is at less than 6 hours from the destination 1 aerodrome and the requirements of CAT.OP.MPA.180(b)(2), are fulfilled;
(v) final reserve fuel;
(vi) additional fuel; and
(vii) extra fuel if required by the commander.

(2) The sum of:
(i) taxi fuel;
(ii) trip fuel to the destination 2 aerodrome, via the decision point;
(iii) contingency fuel equal to not less than the amount calculated in accordance with (a)(3) above from departure aerodrome to the destination 2 aerodrome;
(iv) alternate fuel, if a destination 2 alternate aerodrome is required;
(v) final reserve fuel;
(vi) additional fuel; and
(vii) extra fuel if required by the commander.

It consist’s of two (2x) flightplans which are both calculated via a Decision Point (DP). Flightplan 1 is calculated to your planned destination via the DP and only with 5% Contingency Fuel from DP to DEST.
Flightplan 2 is calculated like any other OFP with Contingency Fuel from Departure to Arrival (not only from DP to Arrival) but to a selected Optional Refuel Destination which lies abeam your route and is connected via the Decision Point.

However, both OFP’s are validated and the higher amount of both is fueled. Once the crew overflies the Decision Point they can choose and evaluate if there is enough fuel remaining for Option 1 or Option 2 (Refueling). Used when Take-Off Mass (TOM) or Tank Capacity (TCAP) is exceeded for a usual OFP.