Cormack wrote:What about FSAviator's operational ceiling rules? Are those entirely untrue?
Also, it seems that I was able to reach Hawaii in 8 hrs 30 mins, which is very close to the real-life 8 hrs 45 mins schedule. I wonder, how could PAA pilots stick to the timetable if they were flying at 10.000 feet or so, where the ground speed is entirely different?
According to this Pan Am schedule actual flight time was 9 hours 35 minutes between SFO and Honolulu.
http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages ... 0/pa50.pdf
The distance from SFO to Hawaii according to skyvector.com is 2082.4 nm, which I will round to 2300 on general principle.
To travel that distance in 9h35m requires an average ground speed of 240 kts. This would also be the average TAS without any tail or head wind component.
At 10,000 ft on a standard day this is equal to 206 kias.
For a takeoff weight of 140,000 lbs:
Set RPM to 2100 and Torque to 165 PSI and the B377 will cruise to Hawaii at around 206 KIAS burning a little more than 3500 pph of fuel. (set mixture to lean)
This is by the book and the COTS B377 will come pretty close to this. (Book specs are predicated on new engines, good piloting, weather conditions, etc.)
Total fuel burn will be approximately 34,000 lbs. If fuel burn is 4,000 lbs per hour the total burn will be approximately 38,000 lbs.
At 134,000 lbs enough fuel can be carried plus 45 passengers to make it from SFO to Hawaii.
At 140,000 lbs a full load of passengers can be carried.
As an aside the skyvector.com website is showing tailwinds today from SFO to Hawaii at 10,000 ft. This is unusual for a west to east flight.
I personally like the calclassic.com web site and have read the fsaviator information. My comment about the fsaviator information is some of it is good and some of it should be questioned by the reader. In the study of history it is always better to go to the original source material. I would recommend that course f action in reply to all the questions you have about the B377. FSAviator is not a primary source whereas there is a lot of primary source material available on the web. The material used by A2A to create their flight model is primary source material.
I think the A2A B377 and the primary source material will produce good questions to ask on the calclassic sight, which I have noticed that you have done.