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How to Calculate Bingo Fuel


MRaza

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How do you calculate bingo fuel? It's different for every aircraft because each aircraft consumes fuel differently, but is there like a standard way (equation or something?) to calculate the bingo fuel for any military aircraft? Something I can use in both DCS, Falcon BMS, and any other sim...

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Minimum fuel to return to intended point of landing plus taxi fuel. It's very subjective and many factors go into planning it. Take your average fuel burn and multiply that by how long it will take you to get back. I know it likely not the answer your looking for but I hope it helps.


Edited by Destroyer37

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Minimum fuel to return to intended point of landing plus taxi fuel. It's very subjective and many factors go into planning it. Take your average fuel burn and multiply that by how long it will take you to get back.

 

How do you find average fuel burn?

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Look at your flow gauges in the pit, it should tell you a readout of fuel flow in lbs per hour for each engine. They are near your right thigh in the A-10.

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Minimum fuel to return to intended point of landing plus taxi fuel. It's very subjective and many factors go into planning it. Take your average fuel burn and multiply that by how long it will take you to get back. I know it likely not the answer your looking for but I hope it helps.

 

Bingo fuel is fuel required to homplate + fuel required to divert to alternative airfield from homeplate + minimum landing fuel (emergency reserve).

 

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Is there different terminology between:

 

  • minimum fuel to return to base from various positions by most efficient means
  • the strictest requirement to return to base for the worst case position by most efficient means
  • minimum fuel to complete the rest of the flight as planned in the manner planned

Of course there is a difference between flying the rest of your flight plan maybe at 100' 500kt through several waypoints and aborting the mission to fly a direct minimum trajectory at low efficient speed back home. It feels wrong to have only "bingo" to describe both concepts.

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Bingo is an emergency condition, exactly how you plan it would depend on and account for tactical considerations.

 

Joker would be the planned fuel state before bingo when you’d head home following your flight plan etc.

 

Depending on the mission profile it may also be the case that joker and or bingo are planned based on landing at an alternative airfield (usually the case for missions in the Middle East at present).

 

You would plan specific bingo/joker values for each waypoint in your planned route. If your tactical situation requries remaining at low level then your fuel calculations would have to account for that.

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OK, bingo is the "off the plan" value and joker is "according to plan" states which have rolling values as the plan progresses.

 

I've read a definition of joker that is "fuel required to commit to an AA engagement" so I was mentally reserving it for just that use (e.g. bingo 2000 lbs, 3500 lbs to finish flight plan, so I need 5500 lbs to be able to commit-A/A here). I can see now that joker is more of "what I need for the plan" where AA or no AA commit are effectively different plans.

 

And makes sense bingo is "fuel required for recovery" which can be more than the physical minimum if the perfect economy trajectory is prevented practically.

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Just to clarify; Bingo is not an emergency condition except in US parlance. Bingo fuel is defined in AOPA manuals as the minimum fuel to comfortably return to the airfield. It is a normal planning fuel, you can plan to run down to your Bingo figure before returning home (not after, obviously :thumbup:)

 

VFR Bingo: Fuel from the farthest point in the route to your destination airfield + 5% contingency

 

IFR Bingo: Fuel from the farthest point in the route to your destination, plus fuel to your IFR alternate, plus instrument approach fuel at one or both (wx depending) plus 30mins holding fuel, plus 10% of the entire amount.

 

Joker fuel is a self-defined fuel figure that is higher than Bingo fuel.

 

All of these must be calculated so that the aircraft is shut down with more than or equal to the minimum fuel in the tanks as per the Ops Manual.

 

TLDR If you're American, Bingo is an emergency, for the rest of us it is a normal fuel planning state.

 

Source: real life fuel planning.


Edited by Alpha-87

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Most of the books I've read about the A10 and other fighters air to air refuel on mission right, to stay on station in many situations, how does that come into play then?

 

No need to worry as much I guess when a tanker is available, you would need to have the rough distance to the tanker in your head and rough distance back to base for fuel requirements I guess, you would be doing this on the fly tho.

 

Then again they do reroute the tankers also.

 

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They will still hold fuel for their ultimate destination i.e. the home/diversion airfield. This is so that should there be an issue with refuelling they are still capable of returning the aircraft to an airfield. You'll often hear of aircraft that have 'one last chance' to take fuel from the tanker before they have to go straight home.

 

If they are successful then they continue with the tasking, unsuccessful and they break off and head for home. I'm not aware of the terminology used by specific operations, but I'd assume the tanker is the destination and the airfield is the destination alternate, so the crew would hold fuel to destination alternate in case of any issues with them or the tanker.

 

It would be poor airmanship and incredibly irresponsible to only have enough fuel to reach the tanker only and not also be able to make it to a runway. But, this is a game, there are no consequences, so load up with weapons and take minimum fuel, you won't get courts-martialled or fired from your keyboard.

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Real pilots stop first, then land. Runways are for models and wings are for fairies.

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he tanker situation is one of the reasons, as Eddie mentioned, that current mid-east ops would often plan their bingo/joker for an alternate airfield.

 

If you flew a mission over Syria from (for example) Aviano there is no way you are getting home without a tanker. Thus all your bingo and joker levels for that sortie would be based on going somewhere with a friendly runway, but not necessarily home (Aviano). You would never let your fuel go below the bongo level for that specific phase of flight that would guarantee you getting to a runway somewhere.

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If it is any use, I have produced a single page diversion chart, which assumes a start from 2000 ft, with all stores expended and a fuel state of less that 2500 lbs.

 

The main - 'Maximum Range with Fuel Remaining' - chart, assumes a fuel at destination of 800 lbs, which allows a PAR, an overshoot into a (tight) visual circuit and a landing with around 350 lbs in tanks.

 

You enter with remaining fuel above the 800 lb minimum at destination, and read off the maximum range for height climbed to. The bold figures show optimum height, and the max range, assuming a climb at recommended climb speed (200 - 180 kias), a cruise at 180 kias and a clean descent, again at 180 kias.

 

The three charts above it show the separate figures for the climb, the cruise, and the descent.

 

I was surprised to find that with only 1800 lbs, I could climb to 25,000ft (covering 30 nm), cruise for 50nm, and descend (covering 34 nm), and still have fuel for a PAR, overshoot and circuit to land. I have tested these figures and they do work.

A-10 Diversion Sheet.pdf

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