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- - Minimum Fuel (https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/major/29865-minimum-fuel.html)

Quote:

Originally Posted by SomedayRJ (Post 444212)

Well, here's stupidity applied for you, and a good example of legality versus safety.

LAX-ANC is a LONG flight,

LAX-PVR is much shorter, but it's covered under turbojet flag fuel planning requirements. That means you carry a lot of fuel for a comparatively short trip.

Insanity? Yessir. Stupid? Definitely. Legal? Abso-lutely!

Lots of things are legal but not necessarily smart. But for international flights, you have to carry not only fuel to destination but add 10% of the burn from A to B AND then most distant alternate and then :30 at 1500ft. (121.645) That's a lot of fuel and when we were coming out of the Caribbean, we were often 're-dispatched' in the air to cut down on the 10% required. ie.. out of the islands to the northeast, the dispatch was to CHS or ORF with re-dispatch to destination.

We wouldn't have to worry about declaring minimum or emergency fuel if, according to one rocket scientist in the senate:

"if we all properly inflated our tires and got tune-ups, that would save more fuel than would result from drilling off our coasts and in Alaska."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Min Fuel (Post 444210)

Windsor said

How far off the planned burn do you have to be to generate a message to dispatch? One hundred lbs. is enough to trigger a message to dispatch.

And yes, P5 (prior planning prevents p*ss poor performance).

Here is another situation that is coming up in the ASRs. Dispatch gives you an alternate and crews have sometimes found they do not have the approach charts for that airport OR there is a notam which precludes an approach. This should have been looked at before the release was signed.

Also, in some cases, the nearby alternate is being used by everyone else and that airport gets slammed with arrivals it can't handle. Again, situational awareness and expierence become a factor. Just because everyone is diverting to airport A, does not mean thats your only option. Airport B may be just as good. Keep your options open.

So, yes, the earlier one begins to search options, the better.

.........................

Thanks for the help on preparing the min/emerg fuel piece. Finished...

A run through the NASA ASR site showed there is a fair amount of confusion about what happens when declaring min fuel and what happens with emergency fuel.

And just in time to show that pilots are not the only ones who get in a tight fix about fuel...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/us...rssnyt&emc=rss

Lot's of interesting views on this topic... I've seen a few RJ's come in (mostly diversions) with some VERY low fuel states. Judging by some of the APU burn rates, I wouldn't feel very comfortable being the PIC on that flight....

Thanks for the discussion!