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Fuel Advisor

Casual & above

Wind-aware, multi-stop fuel planning for cross-country flights — in seconds.

What Is It?

The Fuel Advisor is a cross-country planning tool that finds the best intermediate fuel stops for your aircraft when the distance exceeds your usable range. It isn't just a static airport finder — it fetches live wind forecasts along your route and picks stops that minimize total flight time, accounting for headwinds and tailwinds at your cruise altitude.

Once you confirm a route, the Fuel Advisor creates a full multi-leg trip in PlaneWX and immediately generates weather briefings for every leg — the same AI-powered briefings you get from any other PlaneWX trip.

Fuel prices coming soon. The Fuel Advisor currently helps you find the best stops based on wind efficiency and airport preferences. We're actively working on integrating live fuel prices so you can factor fuel cost into your stop decisions.

Who Should Use It?

The Fuel Advisor is designed for pilots flying:

Cross-country legs longer than their aircraft's practical range
Aircraft with smaller tanks that require one or more fuel stops on longer routes
International corridors where fuel availability must be planned ahead
Any route where they want a departure fuel plan — even for direct flights

Getting Started

Access the Fuel Advisor from the Tools menu in the top navigation bar, then choose Fuel Advisor.

The best way in: right from the trip form. If you're Casual tier or above, the moment you type a route that's too far for your selected aircraft, PlaneWX flags it automatically — no need to do the math yourself or remember the Fuel Advisor exists.

Watch a New Trip dialog showing a Route exceeds aircraft range banner with a Find Fuel Stops button, for a KPWT to KMCO route that's 2235 nm against a 1218 nm range

In the Watch a New Trip dialog, entering KPWT → KMCO in a TBM 9 (1,218 nm range with reserves) instantly surfaces a “Route exceeds aircraft range” banner with the trip distance, aircraft range, and a one-tap Find Fuel Stops button.

Clicking Find Fuel Stops opens the Fuel Advisor with your departure, destination, aircraft, and departure date/time already carried over from the trip form — nothing to retype. Plan your stops, confirm a route, and you're dropped right back into a fully-briefed multi-leg trip.

Pick up where you left off. The Fuel Advisor automatically remembers your route, aircraft, and filters between visits, so if you navigate away mid-plan, everything is waiting for you when you come back. See Saving & Reusing Plans below for details.

How to Plan a Fuel Stop Route

Enter Your Departure and Destination

Type the ICAO identifier for your origin and destination airports. If you arrived here via Find Fuel Stops from the trip form, or from the trip planner, these will already be pre-filled. Click the swap icon to reverse the route.

Choose an Aircraft

Select one of your saved aircraft profiles. The Fuel Advisor uses your aircraft's fuel capacity, reserve settings, cruise speed, and fuel type to calculate realistic range and fuel loads at each stop. Make sure your aircraft profile is up to date — especially fuel capacity and cruise fuel burn — for accurate results.

Set a Departure Date and Time

Enter the date and local departure time. This matters: the wind forecast is pulled for the exact time each leg is expected to be flown. A morning departure will fetch different winds than an afternoon one.

Configure Airport Filters

Use the filter panel to tailor which airports appear as candidates. See the Airport Filters section below for full details.

Click Search

The Fuel Advisor runs in seconds. It fetches multi-model consensus winds along your route, evaluates hundreds of candidate airports, and returns the best route options sorted by total estimated flight time — shorter is better.

Review Routes and Choose One

Each suggested route shows the full sequence of stops, leg distances and estimated times, wind components (headwind/tailwind) for each leg, weather scores, and a fuel plan. Pick the route that works best for you.

Confirm and Create Trip

Click Confirm Route & Create Trip. A confirmation dialog lets you review departure times and ground times at each stop. Once confirmed, PlaneWX creates a linked trip group and immediately generates weather briefings for every leg.

Understanding the Fuel Plan

Each route shows a detailed fuel plan for every leg. Here's what each number means:

Departure Fuel

How much fuel you need in the tanks when you push off blocks. For the first leg, this accounts for your current fuel on board (FOB) and tells you how much to add before departure. For subsequent legs, it's the calculated target load after fueling at the previous stop. Displayed in your aircraft's configured unit — gallons (g), pounds (lb), or litres (L).

Estimated Burn

Projected fuel burn for the leg based on your aircraft profile's cruise fuel flow and the estimated leg time. This does not account for altitude-dependent efficiency variations — use your POH for precise numbers when it matters.

Landing Fuel (FOD)

Estimated fuel remaining when you touch down, after accounting for burn and your configured reserve. A healthy margin above your legal reserve is shown in green; tight margins are flagged.

Fuel to Add

How much fuel to take on at this stop so you arrive at the next destination with a safe margin above your reserve. For international stops, the add amount is shown in both your planning unit and the FBO's local unit — for example, +985lb / 556L at a Mexican airport — so you can tell the fuel truck exactly what you need without mental math.

Minimum Fuel to Add

The minimum amount of fuel you need to add to legally complete the next leg with reserves. Available when the Minimum Fuel loading mode is selected. Flying on minimums saves time if fuel prices are lower at your next stop — factor in refueling time tradeoffs.

Fuel loading modes: Toggle between Full tanks (tops off at each stop) and Minimum fuel (adds only what's needed to reach the next stop with reserves). Full tanks is the safer default; minimum fuel is useful when you want flexibility to buy fuel where it's cheapest — once fuel prices are integrated.

Current Fuel on Board (FOB): Enter how much fuel you already have in the tanks, in your aircraft's unit (shown in parentheses, e.g. “Current FOB (lb)”). The planner uses this to calculate exactly how much you need to add before the first leg, rather than assuming empty tanks.

Fuel Plan on Your Briefing

Once you've confirmed a route and briefings are generated, a Fuel Plan section appears directly on each briefing card — so your fuel numbers and weather analysis are always in the same place.

Collapsed Summary

When a fuel plan is saved, the card collapses to a single summary line: Plan set · add 63g at KGDJ · FOB 173g · FOD 60g. At a glance you can see exactly how much to request at the FBO, your departure fuel, and your estimated landing fuel — without opening the details.

Required FOB

The minimum fuel you need at wheels-up to cover the leg plus your configured reserve. If your current FOB is below this, the planner shows how much to add and highlights it in amber. Clicking Save automatically uses the required FOB — no need to click “Use required” first.

W&B Max

Enter your aircraft's weight-and-balance fuel limit (if it's less than full tanks for this particular departure weight). Leave it blank to use full tank capacity. The planner will tell you if the required fuel exceeds your W&B max — a sign you may need a fuel stop.

International FBO Dual Display

Flying into Mexico, Canada, or Europe? The “add at origin” amount shows your planning unit and the local unit side-by-side — for example, +1647lb / 274g departing a US airport, or +1647lb / 556L fueling up at a Mexican FBO — so you can order fuel in whatever unit the truck uses.

Tip: Consider adding extra fuel if you anticipate deviation around storms or a destination alternate. The fuel plan shows a reminder: “Consider adding more if you expect storms at your destination or a possible divert.”

Wind Forecasts

Wind data uses the same multi-model consensus as briefing Winds Aloft (HRRR / HRDPS / ICON + GFS + ECMWF by region, via Open-Meteo), sampled at your cruise altitude at multiple points along each leg. The Fuel Advisor calculates the effective headwind or tailwind component for your track and adjusts estimated leg times accordingly.

Forecast Horizon

Global models (GFS / ECMWF) are available up to 16 days out. For near-term flights, higher-resolution regional models (HRRR, HRDPS, ICON) contribute when they cover your route and forecast window.

Leg-Specific Timing

Wind is sampled for the time that leg is actually flown, including accumulated ground time from previous stops. A 3-hour layover shifts the wind sample window for the next leg accordingly.

The wind component shown for each leg is the along-track average for that leg — labeled as headwind (HW) or tailwind (TW). Internally, positive values are headwinds and negative values are tailwinds. Route options are sorted by total estimated flight time, so wind-efficient routes naturally bubble to the top.

Airport Filters

The filter panel gives you precise control over which airports are considered as fuel stop candidates. Filters are applied before any wind or range calculations.

Avoid Landing Fees

Excludes airports known to charge mandatory landing fees. Enabled by default. If this filter is active and the Fuel Advisor finds results, it will show a note that more options may be available if you relax this filter — useful for dense corridors where fee airports are the most convenient stops.

Require Instrument Approach

Only considers airports with a published instrument approach procedure. Auto-enabled for IFR-equipped aircraft. Useful when you want to preserve options in case weather deteriorates en route.

Require Towered Airport

Limits stops to airports with an operating control tower. Useful for pilots who prefer towered environments or whose insurance requires it.

Untowered Only

The inverse — limits stops to non-towered airports. Useful if you specifically want quieter FBOs or you're flying a type that operates better at uncontrolled fields.

Avoid Class B

Excludes airports inside Class B airspace. Enabled by default. Turn this off if you're comfortable navigating Class B and want access to larger hub airports.

Avoid / Prefer Class C

Control whether Class C airports (regional airports with approach control) are excluded or prioritized. Class C airports often have good FBO services and Avgas availability.

Fuel Programs

Filter to only include airports that participate in fuel discount programs you belong to — such as AOPA Fuel, EAA, or similar. Your aircraft's default fuel programs are loaded automatically from your profile.

Exclude Specific Airports

Enter one or more ICAO identifiers (comma-separated) to manually exclude airports you want to avoid — for any reason. Great for avoiding busy training airports or fields with notoriously long lines.

Avoid Training-Heavy Airports

Excludes airports with high student training traffic, which can mean longer pattern waits, crowded ramps, and unpredictable traffic flow.

Reset Filters: A Reset button appears in the filter panel whenever any setting differs from the default. Click it to restore all filters to their defaults in one step.

Leg Length Preferences

The Leg Length setting controls how the Fuel Advisor segments the route:

Max Range (default)

Fly as far as possible on each leg, stopping only when range requires it. Minimizes total stops and ground time.

Max Hours Per Leg

Cap each leg to a maximum number of flight hours. Useful for managing fatigue on long travel days or for aircraft where extended range missions are uncomfortable.

Max Distance Per Leg

Cap each leg to a maximum nautical mile distance. Helpful when you know the airspace or terrain on certain segments and prefer shorter hops.

A minimum leg time (default 30 minutes) ensures that very short legs aren't suggested — stops too close together add more ground time than they save.

Reading the Results

Each route card shows:

•Route overview — departure → all stops → destination with distance and ETE for each leg
•Wind component — headwind (HW) or tailwind (TW) in knots for each leg, based on your cruise altitude and expected departure time
•Weather score — a quick GO / Marginal / No-Go indicator for each leg so you can immediately spot a challenging segment
•Fuel plan — departure fuel, estimated burn, landing fuel, and fuel to add at each stop
•Stop details — airport name, identifier, class, and any fuel program participation
•Interactive map — the full route plotted on a moving map so you can visually evaluate the path

Routes are ranked by total estimated flight time. The first option is typically the most efficient. If you see fewer options than expected, check whether any active filters are eliminating candidate airports — the filter hint will tell you.

Direct Flights (No Stops Needed)

If your aircraft has enough range to fly direct — even with full reserves — the Fuel Advisor will tell you that no fuel stop is needed and show you a departure fuel plan for the direct flight. This includes:

How much fuel to depart with
Estimated fuel burn for the trip
Estimated landing fuel above reserve
Wind component and estimated flight time based on current forecasts

You can still create a trip from a direct-flight result to get a full PlaneWX weather briefing.

After Confirming Your Route

When you click Confirm Route & Create Trip, here's what happens:

Review and adjust times

A confirmation dialog shows each leg with its planned departure time and ground time at each stop. Adjust any leg's ground time if you need more time for customs, fuel, or a quick bite.

Trips are created immediately

PlaneWX creates a linked trip group with one trip card per leg — just like a multi-city trip, fully linked together.

Briefings generate in parallel

Weather briefings for all legs are dispatched immediately. You'll land on the first leg's briefing while the others generate in the background — typically within 30–60 seconds.

Fuel plan appears in each briefing

The fuel plan for each leg (departure fuel, burn, landing fuel, fuel to add) is embedded directly in the briefing card so you have it at a glance during preflight.

Forcing Specific Fuel Stops

Need to stop at a particular airport — to visit someone, clear customs, or because you know the fuel is cheap there? Use the Planned Stops feature to pin one or more intermediate airports into the route. The Fuel Advisor will route through your pinned stop(s) and find the best candidates for any remaining gaps.

You can also set a maximum fuel load at a planned stop — useful if you know the fuel price is high there and you only want to take on enough to reach the next stop.

Saving & Reusing Plans

Setting up a route with the right aircraft, filters, and planned stops takes a bit of work — the Fuel Advisor saves that work for you two ways, so you're never starting from a blank form.

Autosave (automatic)

Every change you make — route, aircraft, leg preference, and every filter toggle — is silently saved as you go. Close the tab, navigate elsewhere, or come back tomorrow, and your last session will be restored automatically when you open the Fuel Advisor again. No button to click.

Save Plan As... (named plans)

For a route you fly regularly, click Save plan in the top-right corner and give it a name (like “Home to Oshkosh”). Saving again under the same name updates it — no duplicates to clean up.

My Plans (reload a saved plan)

Click My plans to see every plan you've saved. Selecting one instantly loads its route, aircraft, and filters into the form, ready to search. You can delete a saved plan you no longer need directly from this list.

What isn't saved: Your current fuel on board (FOB) and departure date/time are always left blank to fill in fresh. These are specific to a single flight, not the plan itself — reusing a stale FOB or an old date could give you misleading numbers.

Aircraft Profile Requirements

The Fuel Advisor pulls the following from your aircraft profile. Make sure these are accurate for reliable results:

Fuel Capacity & Unit

The total usable fuel in your aircraft's unit. PlaneWX supports gallons (g), pounds (lb) for jet pilots who plan in weight, and litres (L) for international operators. All fuel plan numbers — FOB, FOD, add amounts — are displayed in the unit you choose. The profile also stores your fuel type (100LL or Jet-A), used for lb↔gal/litre conversions at international FBOs.

Cruise Fuel Flow

Your typical cruise fuel burn per hour, in your aircraft's configured unit (GPH, PPH, or LPH). Used to estimate leg burn and landing fuel. For aircraft with power settings that vary significantly by altitude (turboprops, pressurized piston twins), use a representative cruise value — more precise altitude-based burns require POH data we're planning to support in a future update.

True Airspeed (TAS)

Used alongside wind data to estimate ground speed and leg times. You can override TAS in the Fuel Advisor if you plan to cruise at a different speed than your profile default.

Fuel Reserve Setting

Your configured reserve (time-based or quantity-based) is respected in all fuel calculations. The Fuel Advisor will never suggest a route that leaves you below reserves.

Fuel Type (Avgas / Jet-A / Mogas)

Used to filter candidate airports — only airports with your fuel type available are considered as stops.

If your aircraft profile is incomplete, the Fuel Advisor will prompt you to go to your aircraft settings and fill in the missing values before it can calculate a route.

Example: KCXO to KSAN

Sarah is flying her TBM 960 from Conroe, TX (KCXO) to San Diego (KSAN) — approximately 1,200 nm, which exceeds her comfortable non-stop range with reserves.

She opens the Fuel Advisor, enters KCXO → KSAN, selects her TBM profile, and sets a Thursday morning departure. She leaves Avoid Landing Fees on and Require Instrument Approach auto-enables since her aircraft is IFR-equipped.

The Fuel Advisor returns three routes in under 5 seconds. The top option routes through KELP (El Paso, TX) with a strong tailwind on the westbound leg — 45 minutes faster than the next alternative which stops at KABQ (Albuquerque). The briefing scores for both stops are green.

Sarah selects the KELP route. The fuel plan shows she needs to depart KCXO with 246 gal, add 180 gal at KELP, and will land at KSAN with 82 gal above her 45-minute reserve. She clicks Confirm, and all three briefings (KCXO→KELP, KELP→KSAN) are generated within a minute.

Tips for Best Results

• Keep your aircraft profile current — accurate fuel capacity and GPH numbers directly affect how useful the fuel plan is
• Enter your current FOB so the “fuel to add” number is accurate for your actual departure state
• If you see fewer route options than expected, try turning off Avoid Landing Fees — it's the filter that most often limits candidates in dense corridors
• Wind forecasts beyond 5 days carry more uncertainty — treat fuel burn estimates as approximate when planning far in advance; refine closer to your departure date
• Use Planned Stops if you need to route through a specific airport for operational, personal, or customs reasons
• Fly the same route often? Save it as a named plan so you can reload the whole setup in one click next time
• Each generated briefing shows the fuel plan for that leg — review it during preflight alongside the weather analysis
• After creating a Fuel Advisor trip, you can edit individual leg times or departure airports just like any other PlaneWX trip

Fuel planning is your responsibility. The Fuel Advisor provides estimates based on your aircraft profile data and weather model forecasts. Actual fuel burn varies with winds, power settings, weight, density altitude, and other factors. Always verify fuel loads and runway-alternate requirements against your aircraft's POH, applicable regulations, and your own judgment before flight.

PlaneWX fuel calculations are a planning aid — the pilot in command is always responsible for ensuring adequate fuel.