Weather and fuel | e.g. flight: Boeing 737-800 Flight Simulator X Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
We have a great freedom in the weather settings section. Let's select the Real-World Weather (internet connection is required for that selection).
Now we can set any date, season and hour of our flight.
Now it's time to go to the Fuel and Payload section to load our plane with fuel. As mentioned before, we should burn approximately 716 gallons (4798 lbs) of fuel. Unfortunately, these calculations are hardly true. Let's use a fuel planner which can be found at the following website:
http://www.metacraft.com/737NGFP/
According to that planner we should take about 11000 lbs of fuel (it's approximate, exact values depend on altitude, aircraft weight, speed and direction of wind, etc). So now we enter the almost doubled value of fuel - 11000 lbs. It means our wing tanks will be filled to about 60% of their capacity, while the central tank will remain empty. The amount of fuel calculated by FSX would be insufficient for our flight!
There's one obvious conclusion: FSX aircraft burn more fuel, than the aircraft specifications say. It is recommended to fill the wing tanks to about 85% of their capacity and leave the central tank empty. We won't change anything in the proposed cargo section.