| Yes, George, Jeppesen has a relatively inexpensive but powerful optimization program that i've used for more than ten years to figure out best altitudes and routings based on forecast winds and turbine/piston fuel and speed data. Jepp's flightstar is a incredibly powerful program once you input your plane's burn specs. It has access to worldwide winds and weather. Although I haven't updated the charts for years I can still access the flight planning and weather features for free. I use it to calculate burns and routes on the TBM 700 and it is typically good to a few gallons on a long duration 4.5 hour flight. Here is an example for your routing and I have used the TBM data because I don't have KA200 numbers. What this flight shows today is MAX POWER FL280 (non-RVSM) is the least fuel consumption for this flight with the winds today. I also ran max duration on the TBM which has a much longer time in air and a higher total fuel consumption. I can plug the numbers in for the KA200 if you send me the performance data.
The first chart is the direct route. Not much route optimization in this scenario. Those are Jepp winds at FL280.
The optimize chart shows the possible scenarios at MAXIMUM ENDURANCE POWER for the TBM 700 around 60%. FL280 is clearly the least fuel but not the best scenario at 7:42 flight time.
The MAX POWER setting shows a lower fuel burn and 5:46 total time enroute. Typically, MAX endurance works well with strong TAILWINDS and a need to avoid fuel stops in the TBM. |