Fun With Numbers

Today I flew a "turn" to Ft. Myers Florida. Turn is short for turn around, where you fly from one point to another, and immediately return to the originating station. Since the Captain was flying the return leg, I had some time on my hands and considered crunching some numbers.

Here are some quick basics of our return flight. We had a full boat, 76 passengers and four crew. Our Zero Fuel Weight, which is the weight of the aircraft, passengers, crew and baggage was 64,700 pounds, and we were fueled with 15,400 pounds of liquid noise, giving us a ramp weight of 80,100 which is well below our maximum of 84,000 pounds. We expected to burn 300 pounds of fuel for taxi out which gave us a takeoff weight of 79,800. However, based on the current temperature (29C/84F), and the length of the available runway (12,000 feet), our maximum takeoff weight was 80,000 pounds. Not a lot of extra room.

We are scheduled to leave the gate at 1620 and actually pushed at 1612. Why stick around when we are already full, and knowing that we've got headwinds on the way home? Our wheels-up time is 1621 and our routing takes us over Orlando, Jacksonville, Spartanburg SC, Henderson WV, Pleasant Valley OH, over the western edge of Lake Erie straight to Detroit. Approximate air distance 1000 miles. Once airborne we climb to our cruise altitude of 35,000 where the flight progresses in smooth air, although we are bucking a stiff headwind.

As we proceed north, our flight computer shows the winds to be from 307 degrees at 122 knots. That equates to a headwind component of 81 knots. What this really means is that although our True Airspeed at FL350 is 469 knots, we are only moving over the ground at about 405 knots, much slower than we would like. Accordingly, the Captain pushes the profile a little, flying at an indicated airspeed of Mach 0.80 instead of the more efficient Mach 0.77 the profile calls for. At this combination of speed and altitude, each of the GE engines are burning 1830 pounds of fuel per hour.

We leave the strong headwind on the decent and touch down on runway 3R at DTW at 1852. After the long taxi via W, J, J-10, Q-1, Q to gate B3 we open the door and stop the pay clock at 1858, nineteen minutes early, thanks to leaving 8 minutes early and the Captain's extra speed. The box shows we have 5,700 pounds of fuel left, meaning we burned 9700 pounds, or roughly 1450 gallons of fuel to cover the 1000 air miles we flew. How efficient is that?

Google Maps puts the road distance between Ft Myers and Detroit airports at 1288 miles. Let's assume that instead of loading into a CRJ-900, all 80 of us loaded into 20 efficient 4-passenger cars that achieved a combined mileage of 25 MPG. These 20 cars would burn 1030 gallons of gas for this trip, or 420 gallons less than the RJ. The road trip would also take almost 20 hours instead of our 2 hour 46 minute block to block time. So it would appear that the real efficiency is that the extra 420 gallons of fuel went into saving about 1360 person-hours of time. Seems like a good trade to me.

Some other fun facts: this leg put me over 100 hours in the RJ, so I'm no longer a high-minimums FO, now being just a regular FO, still new, but not green. Total block time for today's trip was about 5 hours, or about $120 in pay, not including per-diem, which will add another $9.80 for the day. It might not seem like much, but I reflected on some things on this flight, like the fact that tomorrow is Easter Sunday, and once again Cathy and I are separated. Easter is about resurrection and new life, and I reflect on how lucky I am to have been given this opportunity. As I fly over Jamie and Brandon in Orlando, Submarine Base Kings Bay GA, my friends Jeff and Amy in SC, I am reminded about my past, different careers, different countries and cities, different challenges, but always the same love of flying. In my new life as an airline pilot, I have learned to cherish each minute I spend with Cathy, because they are few right now. I have learned to save each dollar, because they too are few. I have learned to absorb and capture each and every minute of every flight, because with the talk of potential furloughs in the air, this could be a fleeting dream that I want to remember well. And most of all, I have learned how blessed I can be in this life. Oh, and I guess I learned how loud hitting a goose can be too!

Happy Easter everyone. Go chase dreams.