A key element of flying jet aircraft is planning and thinking ahead. The ‘hands-on’ manipulation of the controls may be fairly straightforward, but the aim is to achieve a safe, smooth and comfortable journey for your passengers. Much of the planning and in-flight management involves mathematical calculations, and a grasp of these concepts will aid you in flying as a Virtual Airline Captain.
Over the coming weeks we will be publishing a series of articles explaining some of the maths involved with flying jets. It is by no means an extensive collection and many more exist, but you will find they soon become the most frequent calculations you perform.
Of course you may be asking yourself why do I want to reading about maths for my sim flying? Well, the purpose in our site is to equip you to get more from your virtual flying and in particular developing the toolkit to be a better virtual airline captain. This is the approach taken in the real world and pilots flying the line use the basic math skills in their day-to-day work. And to a lesser or greater extent that is what we are wanting to simulate in the virtual world.
The initial topics we have lined up for writing about in this series include vertical path management, fuel management and the final approach. We will be covering other techniques and flying problems that will require you to a good grasp of the basic maths behind them.