Dispatch Center Updates!

Greetings!

I am very excited to announce that we have updated our systems to the latest and greatest version of our dispatch system. Version 7.0 includes many exciting changes, and bug fixes, but most importantly our system will now dispatch lower amounts of fuel for your flight in an attempt to reduce the excess fuel we have been loading our aircraft with. The most important change, is that we have removed company mandated Contingency and Tanker fuel. Now, the captain has the option of customizing their fuel loads. The required values still include the enroute, taxi, FAR Reserve, and alternate fuel.

Here is a full list of what we have changed in our 7.00 build. I would like to apologize for the 5 or so hour downtime that occurred Friday while these changes were implemented.

Changes in build 7.00

• Crew Members now have the option of adding contingency and tanker fuel, and it is no longer mandated. Fuel loads for routing is significantly reduced, and is more in-line with real-world standards.
• We have fixed a bug which did not correctly calculate headwind components. This has been completely re-written, and will now be able to add fuel according to the headwind component inputted by Crew Members.
• Created a new, and more efficient way of calculating time for the releases. While we were not able to achieve a 100% accuracy when calculating all fuel, we have attempted to fix errors where minutes were displayed as values 60 and above. I would like to stress, that these are estimates only, and due to the complex nature of calculating time (I know it sounds simple) times may vary up to 9 minutes.
• Changed the “RADIO” call sign for dispatch to “FSACARS” and correctly updated the station name to “SFOFOF4″.
• Updated/Changed several fonts on the ETOPS release, and release on non-printable page.
• Updated the existing way the system handles contingency fuel, and allowed for pilot-controlled values to be entered and calculated by the system.
• Changed FAR Reserve from 30 minutes to 45 minutes to comply with Part 121 Regulations.
• Changed the logic for calculating Minimum Takeoff Fuel, and Arrival Fuels, taking into account the new values for contingency, tanker, reserve, and alternate. These values are more realistic, even though the exact times may vary as mentioned above.
• Numerous other small code improvements, and modifications to make creating releases more efficient.

I hope you enjoy the new features, as always let us know how we are doing! Post a comment on this blog, post a topic on the Fusion feedback forum or contact us directly through the Contact Us page.

Blue Skies!
Bobby Cosgrove
President & Chief Operating Officer – Fusion Airways
bcosgrove ( a t ) fusionairways(dot)com