Originally Posted by
Min Fuel
Trying to remember.. for a flight to the west coast, what would your burn be? 3 RB-211s sucking down 60-70,000lbs. Plus reserves.. so you are over VUZ with more than 4hrs of fuel on board and you are shutting down an engine or diverting for fuel?
We shut down an engine on the 727 coming back from DEN to east coast and proceeded to our destination (I was F/O at the time). FAA wanted to know why we passed a number of "suitable fields." I think shutting down an engine enroute to save fuel on a -121 flight would be cause for a "709" ride.
What am I missing?
I don't know where this thread is going, but I'll make a few statements.
First, the idea of shutting down engines to conserve fuel to "make the flight", is just silly.
Second, almost all airlines dispatch flights using precise taxi, burn, alternate, reserve, contingency, and “other” values for a specific flight. These values are customized to the specific flight (routing, altitude, temperature, winds aloft, etc.), tail number (engine analysis, and other benched fuel flows and corrections specific to the aircraft, MEL and performance “hits” such as APU running continuously or a aerodynamic seals missing, etc.).
Unpredictable weather, or changes to the route and or altitude, will influence the expected fuel upon arrival (EFOA).
Most airlines require crews/dispatchers to compute and monitor EFOA, and other “benchmark” fuel states. These are:
1) That fuel amount that, upon arrival, is expected to be at the aircraft’s computed reserve fuel (FAR :45 min) plus alternate (if required) amount. This is “Decision Fuel”
2) That fuel amount that, upon arrival, is expected to be 30 minutes of flight remaining. This is “Minimum Fuel”.
3) That fuel amount that, upon arrival, is expected to be 20 minutes of flight remaining. This is “Emergency Fuel”.
EFOA is computed before the aircraft leaves the blocks.
During each flight, crews constantly evaluate their fuel status. When any flight condition causes the EFOA to fall to “decision fuel”, i.e. we will be landing with 45 minutes of fuel remaining; a “decision” is made. This is a concentrated effort by the flight crew, and dispatch. The decision, based upon all circumstances and using due prudence, will be to continue the flight or divert.
Based on your example from the beginning of this thread, having yet not completed even a third into this flight and expecting fuel on arrival to be at “Minimum Fuel”…The only decision to be made is which airport has the best food. Because we gotta go there to get gas.