Great video. @ 42:42 for Reserves Fuel in the FMC, best practice would be to add Reserve and Alternate fuel together and use that value (FINRES and ALTN). You can find it at the bottom of your Flight Plan fuel snapshot under FMC INFO. That is typically the value an airline crew would use as their Reserve value while programming. You want that value to reflect your minimum fuel on board planned at your destination because ideally, you would never want to dip below that amount. Gives the FMC a more accurate depiction of your planned flight.
Great tutorial Doof…. even for a pilot transitioning back onto the triple (after a long break) l got lots of good stuff from your vid…keep up the good work
I think your ZFW discrepancy was so big due to a bit of a mix up between Simbrief data and how you’re entering it in the CDU. Eg. Payload includes all passenger weights, their baggage, and any cargo weight. So you’ve entered the passenger numbers and then duplicated it by splitting the total payload over the two main cargo holds (ie added in passenger and cabin baggage weight into the cargo holds). And the bulk cargo entry refers to a specific hold (loose load compartment right at the back by the tail) which can contain loose cargo or bags or wheelchairs/strollers etc but is also part of the total payload. So that weight is also duplicated by adding it separately into the CDU. I think you’re really meant to just enter the ZFW from Simbrief directly into CDU and let it split it out automatically.
for the ZFW they dont add up because the passenger average weight in simbrief is different than the one in pmdg you can change it tho in the pmdg settings or fs actions i believe to match simbrief or the other way around and you will be getting accurate ZFW
Suggestion: when loading payload, enter the ZFW from Simbrief and it will automatically distribute cargo, passengers, and other payload. That way your CG will be optimal