Originally Posted by
itry2fly
thanks for your response however not quite what I was looking for. let me try to explain, let's say we are flying from ord to lax, lax has bad weather and we have to hold for 1 hour burning 3000lbs an hour, min fuel is 2700lbs, we choose an alternate of San Diego. how would you calculate at what point you would leave the holding pattern? would it be your min fuel + how much it takes to fly from the holding fix to alt.
Required reserve+fuel to fly from holding to alternate+any anticipated delays+a little for mom and the kids and the family pooch.
What you are trying to avoid is a fuel emergency, the best way to do that is to somehow account for the unaccountable. The answer is not fixed, but varies continuously.