Planning long cross country fuel stops

[Leo Langston]

So what tool do folks use when planning long distance cross countries to preplan their fuel stops. Using GP of FF I usually had to plan the total flight, see how much fuel it would take and then start iterating to find another airport/waypoint with a total fuel burn that fits my tank load. In the old AOPA flight planner it used to display a range ring along the flight path to indicate the distance when you reached your reserve remaining and where you would be empty based on your input fuel burn info. I don’t see that capability in the new AOPA planner or GP or FF. So how do others do it? Brute force iterations?

 

[drummer4468]

Easy peasy. Plot the entire flight in FF, ideally with ballparked fuel stops built in. Then pull up the FF-generated navlog and look at the elapsed times at each planned stop to verify you're comfortably within limits.

Say your plane has 5 hours of endurance on full tanks, and you're planning a 10-hour XC. Trace along that pink line and plan to land somewhere around each third of your overall trip(every 3.5ish hours, leaving an hour+ of reserve for each leg). Or more often if you choose; I don't like flying any longer than 3hours per leg anyhow. Plot those waypoints, then verify with the navlog.

If you've already input your fuel burn info, you should be able to cross-check with that (gals burned and remaining should also be on the navlog) and make sure it all makes sense.

I don't really care where FF says I should be empty, as winds aloft always change things up and I'll never be planning on taking it near that limit anyhow.

Happy Flying

 

[Jim_R]

iFly EFB's Real Plan feature has an option to identify fuel stops as it builds your route.

 

[MooneyDriver78]

Airnav has a planner tool.

I use my own tools because I have specific needs, more than just price of fuel.

 

[Dana]

I usually start with Google Earth, which can display sectional charts. I know about how far I want to go so I drag a rubberband line in the appropriate direction until the distance is close to what I want, then look for suitable airports near there. If I'm looking for food along the way GE makes it easy to find restaurants near the airport. Then Airnav for airport details, finally punching it into Avare, one leg at a time.

 

[eman1200]

u don't really have to make fuel stops in a mooney but if I did it'd be the amount of fuel I can carry divided by fuel burn per hour minus reserves. stop sometime before that at either cheap fuel or interesting place to stop. don't overcomplicate it.

 

[cowman]

A lot of pilots just figure a maximum leg distance before refueling. You or your passengers are likely to have full bladders before you have empty tanks assuming you take off with full fuel. For me that max is 3 hours even though my plane has over 5hrs of endurance. If it’s say 3.5 to make it all the way direct I might bend that but usually it ends up being more like a ~5hr flight that gets split into two 2.5 legs or wherever the cheap fuel stop is.

 

[kyleb]

u don't really have to make fuel stops in a mooney but if I did it'd be the amount of fuel I can carry divided by fuel burn per hour minus reserves. stop sometime before that at either cheap fuel or interesting place to stop. don't overcomplicate it.

This is my basic plan. I use Airnav's route finder tool to identify places along the route with decent fuel prices. Something I've come to appreciate more is whether the field has services and nearby food/lodging, just in case something (weather, airplane problem, etc) goes sideways while I'm there.

 

[frfly172]

I have used air nav for years with good results.

 

[Leo Langston]

I stNd corrected on the AOPA flight planning app. I tried it again for a long cross country and it did draw a yellow line across the flight path at my reserve remaining point and a red line at the empty tank point. Not sure why I didn’t see it the last few times I messed with it. But I will say it was a PITA to use on my iPad. Very hard to move the map around without it getting resized or moved around by accident and many times it would just delete the path I was planning and return to a blank map. That was irritating. Perhaps it’s not really meant for an ios device but needs a real computer. I will have to try the other suggestions.

 

[Pinecone]

As per others, I use Airnav. They give you the option to set the leg lengths then offer you a choice of places to stop. Fuel price is one thing you can use to pick your stop.

I just found out, if you click on the FBO name on the Airport page, it takes you to more info and if they have courtesy/crew cars. I talked to them about making food/restaurant info more obvious.

 

[donjohnston]

airnav.com always worked great for me. Plug in start and end airports, how far of a leg you want to fly, whether instrument approaches are needed, the type/length of runway, and it will generate a list of airports.

 

[GMascelli]

I use foreflight for the initial full route plan and then look at fuel prices for my stops. My bride and I like to get out and stretch every three hours so I look for a fuel stop in that range usually leaning toward 3.5 hours and based on available approaches and fuel prices for the final selection.

For our Florida trips we usually stop at the same fuel stop. It fits in that 3 to 3.5 hour range depending on headwinds, and the service is always excellent with a competitive fuel price.

 

[Brad W]

I haven't been actively flying and I'm not familiar with foreflight

but I have played around with skyvector.com, and it has a tool that will show the 100LL prices right on the map (or jetA or mogas)...so you can eyeball the mid point of the route for example, and look for the best price
Seems like skyvector is a pretty good tool

I also noticed that AOPA's planner draws a red line across your route line at the point at which you'll run out of fuel...but it seems to say that it's based on great circle distance and not the planned route legs so not much value there unless you're planning direct routing