Some OFP formats do not support a specific lind for MEL fuel and seemingly just add it to the extra fuel, which results in it not being part of minimum takeoff fuel (unlike on formats where it is supported). I wonder if something could be done so that it becomes part of the minimum takeoff fuel?
I suppose ideally support for MEL fuel should be added to said formats, but if it’s too much work (or a specific format is known not to list it separately), one of our resident dispatchers can suggest which of the existing items (trip, contingency or final reserve) would be most appropriate for it?
I was going to mention the 10% fuel added for FAA Flag and similar operations being dumped in the final reserve for formats that don’t support it, but I see that’s been fixed in the March 12 update, which as per the changelog should have updated all formats to indeed include MEL fuel in the minimum takeoff fuel.
But for some reason BER did not make the cut, so I guess my post above is more of a bug report than a feature request?
Now that I took a closer look, the formats where MEL is added to ADDFU/EXTRA are the ones where there is seemingly no obvious specific line for “total takeoff fuel” vs. “planned takeoff fuel” (I’ve noticed AFR 2012, BER, DLH, GWI, KLM, THY, UAE, UAL 2012 – that last one actually does have MIN FUEL vs. GATE FUEL), so I guess it is on purpose.
Does make it impractical to separate MEL fuel from actual “optional” fuel nevertheless
I wonder if it would make sense to add it to the trip fuel perhaps?
Hi Tim, it does seem like some company layouts don’t separate the extra fuel or denote a minimum takeoff fuel anywhere.
But I think it makes sense to separate them for some layouts in SimBrief, even if I’m not sure if this is realistic or not. I’ve updated the BER, DLH, GWI, KLM, and THY layouts accordingly. Users who don’t want separate fuel lines can simply add all of their additional fuel in the “Extra” bucket, so this gives some more flexibility I feel.
This doesn’t solve the minimum fuel not appearing on some layouts, such as BER. But the MEL fuel appearing on a separate line should at least help somewhat I think.
