Help please! New to Plan G - question

[Quickmarch 488]

Hi Mh'ers,

 

Newbie to Plan G. I've tried to find the answer on the Plan G forum but have not been successful.

 

Quick question: The "Perf. Speed" and "Perf. Fuel" fields in the Aircraft Profiles section are terms that I'm not familiar with. Could they be translated to "Endurance Speed (Vbe) and Endurance Fuel" in North America speak?

 

Thanks

[Andrew Godden 944]

March,

 

I think the "Perf." values are used to differentiate between the economy parameters and other "performance" parameters, be it normal cruise speed and fuel consumption or high cruise speed and fuel consumption.  As you determine what values you enter, you can determine the use of the fields.

 

Does this make sense?

 

Cheers

Andrew

[Quickmarch 488]

Thanks Andrew,

I think I'll use Vbe for the "Perf." field and Vno for the regular cruise numbers. These are the two cruise parameters so likely to be used.

[Tim_A 997]

PERF is the best performance speed of the aircraft, typically at 75% power output or full throttle. ECON can be either best endurance or best range performance according to preference, although typically it's the 55% or 65% power setting from the POH. All values assume the engine has been correctly leaned.

 

For example, for a Cessna 172N cruising at 6000ft PA in ISA conditions,

 

75% (PERF) cruise = 120KTAS, 8.4GPH (2600RPM)

54% (ECON) Cruise = 104KTAS 6.2GPH (2300RPM)

 

Obviously these values will vary according to temperature and altitude, and so the values set in Plan-G are there simply to act as a guide either for a specific set of conditions, or a "typical" set of conditions.

[Tim_A 997]

Generally PERF is what the pilot wants to fly at, and ECON is what whoever pays the bills tells the pilot to fly at.

[Quickmarch 488]

Thanks Andrew,

I think I'll use Vbe for the "Perf." field and Vno for the regular cruise numbers. These are the two cruise parameters so likely to be used.

 

So you can see where my preferences lie - exactly opposite. Thanks, Tim, for the reference, never heard Vno referred to as a "Performance" number. I'll reverse them.

 

Same software, slightly different subject: I tried flying the Beaver with Plan G hooked up (using <paid> FSUIPC) and running in the background. The laptop got mad hot, so I think I'll have to wait until I can run Plan G on a networked computer when I get back to Canada. 

 

Cool   software, though.