I sure hope this discussion takes off . Chime in and share how you are using Excel in conjunction with your flight activities. This discussion is not limited to full-scale guys at all. I am an avid RC'r and Flight Sim enthusiast. I use Excel in all of these pursuits.
A long time ago I wrote a flight planner program in C. If I could just get the coordinates and mag deviations for the various navaids. I even had a formula to get the coordinates for the such-and-such radial at such-and-such DME. I'm an engineer and know that rate of climb is change in altitude with respect to time which is a differential equation that can be solved so you can compute time to climb from altitude A to altitude B and assuming best climb speed: distance to climb - which also got figured into the flight planner program. I've also looked at the fuel performance charts for the C-130 (see avatar). It is true that the higher you go, the fewer pounds per hour of fuel you burn. If that puts you in a severe headwind, you might not want to do that. You might fly at a lower altitude where the wind is less. You'll burn more pounds per hour, but you are airborne fewer hours. I used this once to get my crew to the bar at Clark AB an hour before the rest of my squadron.
