Field notes
Short, useful notes on the arithmetic behind managing an airplane: fuel stops, reserves, winds, weights, runway margins and what the owner needs to see. Written for pilots who have stood on the ramp, with the same numbers the app uses.
Reserve fuel, and the alternate nobody plans
How JetDesk decides whether a leg makes reserve, and why the alternate is where most fuel stops really come from.
Why block time swings twenty minutes
How the FAA winds aloft forecast becomes a groundspeed for each leg, and why the return leg costs more than the outbound one.
Weight before fuel: payload runs out first
Zero fuel weight, max fuel by weight and landing weight for a Piper Meridian with five aboard, and how JetDesk shows it per leg.
What the owner report should say
The monthly numbers an aircraft owner actually wants, and why estimate versus actual matters more than the total.
The two-week rule for fuel prices
Why a logged fuel price goes stale after fourteen days, and how the market reference tells you when the whole board has moved.
What a fuel stop actually saves
The fuel stop decision as arithmetic: price gap times gallons, minus the cost of the extra cycle and detour, and the break-even gap that makes it worth it.
Density altitude for turboprop pilots
What hot days and high fields do to takeoff and landing distance, and why a 50 percent margin is the number to plan around.
How JetDesk computes trip cost
The inputs behind the per-leg cost: distance, winds aloft, block overhead, taxi fuel, cruise burn and a planning price, and what is left out.
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