OFP - Flightplan

General - AA Flight Plan Format (Flightkeys)

SimBrief (www.simbrief.com) is our preferred method of flight planning as it has an amazing setup and UI which allows you to easily select the parameters for your flight to generate an OFP that is almost exactly what you would find on the flight deck of an American Airlines aircraft. At first it can be very intimidating to look at this extensive document and figure out what all of the information on it is, so we will break down the general areas of the OFP for your use. SimBrief also offers an API that allows us to create flightplans right from the crew portion of our website and easily export them to your simulators as well as display this OFP right on our website's own briefing page. SimBrief is the preferred method of flight planning as it simulates a dispatcher creating an OFP for you which is what you would get in the real world. Manual calculations are welcome but should be backed up with a SimBrief or other flight planning program.

Setting Up Your Flight

When you are ready to begin preparing your flight plan you can simply navigate to the website, search for the flight you would like to fly, and then "bid" on it. Once the bid has been added, you can click "My Bids" to be taken to the page which will show you all of the flights that you have indicated that you would like to fly. To start the flight planning process, click on "Actions" for the flight you would like to plan and then "Create SimBrief Flightplan".

You will then be prompted to select the aircraft tail number you would like to fly. You can choose your favorite here or just select a random one if you do not care which tail number you fly. After you select one, click "Proceed To Flight Planning".

You will be taken to the "Dispach Input Request Form" which is where you can make slight changes to your flight planning with things such as selecting your SimBrief Aircraft Type for better performance planning based on your sim aircraft, adding a SELCAL, selecting an alternate airport, requesting a cruise altitude, or changing some of your fuel planning requirements. This page is set so that you can simply click "Submit Requests" below without having to make change if none are needed.

A popup will appear while SimBrief ensures that you are logged in and then processes your requests to begin building your OFP. This should only take a few seconds (depending on the SimBrief server load) before redirecting you to our website's briefing page which appears below.

A few of the options on the briefing page are explained below:

• "Edit Release" brings up a popup that allows you to make changes to your flight planning through SimBrief.
• "Generate New Release" allows you to re-generate your flight plan if needed after making changes or if it has been a while since you initially created it and would like to get new winds, weather, etc.
• "Load In JetNet" will open up your JetNet ACARS for you, load the data, and get it ready so that all you have to do is click "Start Flight" in JetNet once you are ready to begin tracking.
• "Prefile on VATSIM" will open the VATSIM Prefiling page in a new tab with everything filled out for you already for the flight plan to be filed.
• "View on SkyVector" will load your flight plan on SkyVector for you to view.
• "Download Flight Plan" will allow you to select your flight plan format, if needed, from the dropdown to download the flight plan file for your sim/aircraft addon if it does not support SimBrief natively in the simulator.

This page is set up to give you as much information as possible in one centrally located area while also giving you the actual flight plan for your flight. Let's take a look at the actual information on the OFP.

Flightkeys Basics

We are using a flight plan from American Airlines flight 774 from KORD to KLGA flown on 23FEB25. Let’s take a look through the OFP that came out from “dispatch” to begin figuring out how to read it.

OFP Header

This top portion is the flight release information which provides some crucial information about the ability to release the flight. From left to right, we see this is an IFR flight under the callsign AAL744 (American Seven-Forty-Four) flown on the 23th of the month. The aircraft is ship number 806 and the tail number is N200NV. Departure airport is ORD and arrival airport is LGA with a landing alternate of BOS. The Minimum Takeoff Fuel (fuel required to accept a takeoff clearance and required before advancing the thrust levers for takeoff) is 17,558 lbs. The release fuel (fuel required at the gate for the fuel planning on the flight plan) is 18,058 lbs. The total fuel burn planned for our flight is 9,026 lbs and the planned fuel remaining when arriving at LGA is 8,532 lbs which is estimated to allow us to fly for another 1 hour and 43 minutes from that point. Our cost index is planned at 60.

Since we have an alternate, the next area shows our planned routing if we do need to go to the alternate. It is filed at FL270 or 27,000 feet and the filed alternate routing is from KLGA direct (DCT) to MERIT and then the ROBUC3 arrival into KBOS. This planned route may not be the one that you actually fly, but is there as the plan for both fuel and in case of lost communications.

OFP Fuel Ladder/Times/Weights

From left to right, top to bottom, lets work through the fuel ladder portion of our flight plan. This is the preferred method of fuel planning when setting up your flights. Manual calculations can be done but should be cross checked with your SimBrief OFP for accuracy. The very top of this shows our planned arrival fuel is 8,532 lbs of fuel which should allow us to fly for an additional 1 hour and 43 minutes. That should check out with the top portion of our OFP. Next, we see that the remainder of our fuel plan is broken down into title, description, fuel, time, distance, and notes columns. Our enroute burn to LGA is 9,026 lbs which is 1 hours and 37 minutes enroute over a total route distance of 694 nm. Below is E/RSV which is an extra reserve put on by the Captain (selected in the SimBrief configuration settings) which shows 15 minutes selected, 1,382 lbs which comes out to the 15 minutes requested. Then is our actual RSV – FAR required reserve fuel which has been calculated at 3,304 lbs and gives us 45 minutes. DISP ADD is dispatch add fuel which, in this case, is zero but could be added for things like enroute turbulence deviations, planned VIP movements at the destination/arrival airport, etc. ALTN is our alternate which correctly shows BOS. The fuel plan to Boston is 3,846 lbs which is planned at 43 minutes and a distance of 229 nm. The MIN T/O – takeoff fuel is 17,558 lbs which matches our minimum takeoff fuel of 17,558 lbs which is the number you need to see on board when you advance the throttle to takeoff power on your takeoff roll. If you are below this number you are not permitted to takeoff and must either return to the gate to be re-fueled or contact dispatch to obtain a new flight plan. DISP EXTRA is an area reserved for extra fuel which may be needed to dispatch the aircraft due to a MEL, CDL, etc. Next, we have our planned taxi fuel at ORD which dispatch has estimated will take us 500 lbs for 20 minutes. Added together we see our total fuel calculated is 18,058 lbs of fuel which is also our release fuel at ORD. If we are below the release fuel when preparing to push back, we are not permitted to do so and must either have them fill us back up to meet this number or contact dispatch to obtain a new fuel plan.

Continuing down below the fuel ladder you will see the "On Time Analysis" section which breaks down the SKDBLK (Scheduled Block) times compared to the actual FLIPLN (Flight Planned) times with the above information. This says we will spend an extra 5 minutes enroute compared to the scheduled flight time for a total of 205 minutes from gate to gate compared to the scheduled 200.

We have 0.0 PCT (%) BIAS which is used for trip fuel added if the aircraft performance has known deterioration. The ENDURNC is our endurance time in hours and minutes of our release fuel which would be 3 hours and 21 minutes.

Next we can see the weights used for this plan including the planned payload of 33,940 lbs, planned ZFW (Zero Fuel Weight) of 125,384 lbs, a planned ramp weight of 143,892 lbs, and a PTOW (planned takeoff weight) of 143,392 lbs which does match our planned ramp weight minus the 500 lbs of planned taxi fuel.

We then also get planned information for if our ramp weight was P01000 (plus 1,000 lbs from planned ramp weight) then the flight time would remain the same but we would burn an extra 37 lbs of fuel. Similarly, if we were to be M01000 (minus 1,000 lbs from planned ramp weight) then we would save 53 lbs of fuel with the same flight time.

Since we are not crossing terrain on this flight, we do not have engine out driftdown data calculated.

OFP MEL/CDL/SEL/NEF/TAC and Remarks

While this section is generally not utilized currently with SimBrief, we wanted to give brief descriptions of each item to increase your knowledge.

• MEL: Minimum Equipment List. This is a list of everything that can potentially be broken/missing on the airplane and still be legal to fly. You would see things here such as MEL 49-01: APU which would alert you to something being wrong with the APU. You then would utilize the associated aircraft type specific MEL book to find out more about operating without the APU and to see what other restrictions/requirements are needed to do so safely and legally.
• CDL: Configuration Deviation List. This is a list of things that can be missing as non-structural parts of the aircraft while still being safe to operate. You may see things here like missing static wicks, or potentially a missing door cover to an unpressurized part of the airframe that may cause a performance penalty. You would utilize the CDL to verify any other restrictions/requirements are needed to do so safely and legally.
• SEL: Special Equipment List. This is a list of specific extra equipment installed on the aircraft that may be getting retrofitted or is possibly different from the main fleet. You could see things here such as a special livery on an airplane, extra monitoring equipment installed, different brakes, etc.
• NEF: Non-essential furnishings. These are mainly cosmetic issues with the airplane that do not have any effect on the aircraft operation. You will mainly see things here like broken lights, broken seats, torn/worn carpet, etc.
• TAC: Tracking and Control items. This list is set up for tracking specific items for future maintenance. It is a way to let you know that something has been identified as needing to be tracked by maintenance, and it will list what their procedures are for ensuring it continues to be safe.

The remarks section (RMKS/) is an area for your dispatcher to communicate with you with anything special. You'll see for our operation at vAAirlines you will get a planned load distribution here of passengers broken down by class (this has 15 people in first or F, and 137 people in economy or Y), as well as the total planned weight of baggage in lbs (5,320 lbs).

OFP ATC Filed Flight Plan

Starting from left to right we see that this is a flight following (FF) through the following ATC ARTCC's in order with ZAU (Chicago), ZOB (Cleveland), ZNY (New York), and ZBW (Boston - alternate). The next line shows our flight plan with the company (AAL) and flight number (774) with IS being an IFR flight plan.

-B738/M-SDE2E3FGHIRWXY/LB1 is our aircraft type B737-800, wake category /M (medium wake. /H would be heavy wake and appended to 300,000+ lbs), and our radio communication, navigation and approach aid equipment and capability, surveillance equipment, and performance capability. These codes are communicated so that each ATC station automatically can tell your aircraft characteristics without having to constantly ask the pilot.

KORD2015 shows our departure airport as well as the estimated gate departure time in UTC/Zulu time.

N0455 shows our initial cruise speed in knots (N) but could also be given in mach (M078 which would be Mach 0.78). F350 is our initial cruise altitude of FL350 or 35,000 feet with our filed route following behind as DCT (direct) MOBLE DCT ADIME DCT GERBS J146 ETG MIP4.

KLGA is the destination airport and our estimated time enroute. KBOS is our alternate.

PBN/A1B1C1D1S1S2 is our performance based navigation code. DOF is our date of flight 250223 (YYMMDD - 2025 Feb 23). REG is our aircraft registration (N200NV). EET is our estimated enroute time by when we'd enter each ARTCC based on our departure time and how long we'd be in each sector. SEL is our SELCAL, OPR is our operator, PER is our performance category, and we have a RMK or remark saying that we do have TCAS.

OFP Navigation Log

At first glance this section can look pretty intimidating, but it is set up to give you some great information in a very easy to read format. Let's take GERBS for an example.

Starting on the top left and working our way to the right on the top line we have the fix name GERBS followed by the latitude (LAT) of the fix (N41467) and the longitude (LONG) of the fix (W084255). 103 is the magnetic course (MC) in degrees which is followed by the mach number (MK) which is planned at 791 which is Mach 0.791. We then have our ground speed (GS) of 523 and our planned temperature deviation from standard (TD) of P00 or Plus 0. Next is our segment distance (SD) in nautical miles 0051 or 51 nm and our segment time (ST) in hours and minutes 0006 or 0 hours and 6 minutes. The last item on the top row is our segment burn (SB) which is hundreds of pounds 0005 or 500 lbs.

Moving down to the bottom portion of the same GERBS box we see that we have the identification field which, for a fix, is the same. Our flight level (FL) is listed here next as 35 which equates to 35,000 feet. To the right of that is the wind direction and speed (WIND) at the point with 28068 being wind 280 degrees at 68 knots with the average wind component (WC) being P68 or plus 68 knots of tailwind (a headwind would be M or minus before the value). Following that is our magnetic heading (MH) of 101 which is 101 degrees and our highest actual terrain (TERR) between waypoints and 5 nm to the left and right of course 032 would be 3,200 feet. Continuing on we have our listed true airspeed (TAS) of 455 knots and our average turbulence index (I) value for the area (lower is better/smoother). Finishing up we have the total distance remaining (TLDR) of 519 which is 519 nm, our total accumulated time (TTLT) in hours and minutes of 0024 which is 00 hours and 24 minutes, and finally our total accumulated burn (TTLB) of 0045 which is 4,500 lbs.

OFP General

The remainder of the OFP is pretty straightforward with various weather reports, wind reports, NOTAMs, company messages, etc. All of these are labeled accordingly but we will pick it back up near the bottom with the appended takeoff data which is also viewable on it's own tab on the website briefing page.

Takeoff Data

This document is not AA specific and is generated by SimBrief. We will walk through some of the basics on here for you to understand some of what it is telling you and how to utilize if it you wish.

The top portion is all of our aircraft data that is being used but we want to focus on the information below /// TAKEOFF DATA ///

From left to right we have our airport KORD and our planned runway of 22L. Our POAT (planned outside air temperature) is planned at 3.0 or 3 degrees C and our planned wind is 173M07 which means it is coming from 173 degrees and gives us a 7 knot headwind. Planned altimeter is 29.99 and the planned maximum ramp weight is 1742 or 174,200 lbs. For this takeoff the system has calculated a flaps 5 takeoff and the maximum temperature of 52 for which the data is still good. We have a V1 value of 40 which is 140, VR value of 40 which is 140, and V2 value of 47 or 147. Our planned takeoff weight is 1434 or 143,400 lbs.

We can see in the remarked that we are planning a reduced (derated) takeoff with the D-TO with an assumed temperature set to 52 degrees. This takeoff is set up to have the bleeds on.

Below there are many more configurations that will be listed with different runways. For more information on this, or anything else on the SimBrief specific flight plan, we recommend utilizing the "Interactive OFP Sample" in the SimBrief user guide!