For those with insomnia or budding accounts, you might find the fuel efficiency manual an interesting read.
Some little fuel saving techniques to try, oh and get rid of any pillows and blankets for extra savings.
http://commercialaircraft.bombardier.com/en/q400/Literature.html (http://commercialaircraft.bombardier.com/en/q400/Literature.html)
NOOO, not the blankets! :o Probably don't need them on a typical Q400 sector though *phew*
From what I read, the most important things to optimise are (in order or precedence):
- en-route winds (up to 15%) (taking advantage is only really possible if you've got a posh package such as PFPX that can overlay routes over wind charts and do lots of clever mathsy things)
- reduce cruise speed (up to 12%) (our SOP approximate what Bombardier call Intermediate Speed Cruise (ISC), High Speed Cruise (HSC) is permitted if you're behind schedule. LRC is obviously the most efficient but it increases time in the cruise by 10%)
- reduce climb IAS (up to 6%) (our SOP is Type 2 then Type 1 (185 kias to FL100 then 210 kias thereafter, using 900 rpm). A Type 3 climb (160 kias) is more efficient but sooo sloooooow).
- descent technique (up to 5%) (we don't have SOP on this, but Bombardier rekons you should begin at 1500 fpm and then increase to 2000 fpm below FL170. I've always used 1800 fpm as it's what the FMS defaults to so I'm somewhere in between)
- single engine taxi (up to 3%) (that's already our SOP)
- RNP AR approach (up to 3%) where possible (presumably as they're more direct).
I'm going to sound
terribly dull now, but page 26 makes for some very interesting reading, the difference in fuel consumption between an intermediate profile (what Intercity use) and a max efficiency profile is about 6% less fuel but 11% longer time.
So I'm generally quite happy that our existing SOP seems to tally with the compromises detailed in the Fuel Efficiency manual. However, I might try a pure Type 2 climb (that's 185 kts all the way to TOC) and see what difference it makes.
By the way, found an interesting fact, not sure how accurate it is but apparently the per-seat-mile fuel cost of an A319 is almost identical to a Q400. Providing you can fill all the A319's extra seats of course.