Thank you Hrast for kindly putting this picture here.
Since last summer, I have now flown the B757/B767 , on almost the same track as Geoff Quickfall ( see here ), but instead of flying hydroplanes earlier like you Geoff, I just flew over the seas on Aircraft Carrier jets.
... Geoff, I instantly recognized your B767 Cockpit ...
Besides of ASTRONAV, what do I use HP41X/Y/Z for ?
Very simply for 2 main computations :
1 - When you take off on a JET A/C, most often, your actual Payload, Fuel Onboard and therefore Take Off Weight / Zero Fuel Weight are somewhat different from the ones printed on your Operational Flight Plan ( JEPPESEN " JETPLAN " for example ). Not so long ago when I was flying DC10-30 Cargo, we had up to +/- 30 tons on Take Off Weight " last hour " change, with no possibility to receive an updated JETPLAN. Obviously, we corrected Fuel uploads accordingly, but - as regards fuelchecks airborne - we were left then with 2 OPTIONS.
* Either use our initial and uncorrected JETPLANS, and compare the variation of the fuel differences during the flight : we could very well start up after level off with actual fuel figures of + 8 tons when compared to printed figures. And then over the elapsing hours, this difference should modify slowly ... this was a first way of monitoring our fuel consumption.
** OR - my favorite solution thanks to HP41X/Y/Z made by HrastProgrammer - and through the correct use of some Aerodynamical Formulae, from our printed "not updated" JETPLAN printed data I could instantly and very accurately re-calculate our fuel figures pertaining to the exact conditions of our actual flight. Then, if I observed " + 6 tons " ( compared to a non-updated JETPLAN ) in our fuel figures, I could then instantly compare this figure to the much more realistic values recomputed from printed JETPLAN data thanks to my software. This is a safer approach as regards fuel monitoring since – especially in case of big differences in Actual Take Off Data vs Printed ones – you EXACTLY know EARLY IN THE FLIGHT where your fuel figures stand, instead of having to wait over hours like in the first case.
By the way, Geoff, if you already have HP41X/Y/Z , I will freely send you my own A/C Fuel Monitoring Software for your own use. And if you don’t ... then you know what next step is :-))
2 nd Computation : Back to ASTRONAV this time. I use HP41X/Y/Z for Celestial bodies identification.
As a recent real world example, from my B 757 Cockpit at position N 23°38'2 E 039°22'9 on Nov 24, 2007 at 16h23 UT, I observed an unidentified Star at an approximate Height of 8° and and approximate Azimut of 165°. Which was this Star ??? IDENT gives the following results : S.H.A. = 344.589 DMX R.A. = 1.00043 H.MS DEC. =-55.07582 D.MS . I could then easily identify this Star as the Beautiful ACHERNAR .... :-))
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Thank you again Hrast for your such wonderful HP41X/Y/Z Software which for me runs perfectly on HP48GX.
Antoine ( from JEDDAH Saudi Arabia to-day ... )