Fuel Calculation
Calculation of fuel requirements (especially trip fuel and reserve fuel) is the most safety-critical aspect of flight planning. This calculation is somewhat complicated:
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- Rate of fuel burn depends on ambient temperature, aircraft speed, and aircraft altitude, none of which are entirely predictable.
- Rate of fuel burn also depends on airplane weight, which changes as fuel is burned.
- Some iteration is generally required due to the need to calculate interdependent values. For instance, reserve fuel is often calculated as a percentage of trip fuel, but trip fuel can't be calculated until the total weight of the aircraft is known and this includes the weight of the reserve fuel.
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