Saving Fuel
 

Hey guys, with the price of fuel these days, saving fuel is matter of job security. I know many companies have instituted numerous fuel saving measures. Additionally, some people have their individual techniques for additional fuel savings. I'm curious what measures each of your companies are mandating and what you guys are actually practicing.

Keep it clean on a visual...plan the descent to bring 'em up from idle at 500 feet on speed. So many guys go and configure flaps 45 and gear down at over 5 miles. What an incredible waste of fuel...

My personal technique, much to the company's shagrin, is to pull the power levers to shut-off on final and glide it in. Then have one of the tugs meet us to pull us in to the gate. NIMBY whinos seem to be happy with it also.

Sorry, getting tired and in a wise-ass kinda mood. We have the top secret PPAS at my company which they seem to like us to use. If we're running late with connecting passengers though, for example, the guys I've flown with so far are more than willing to keep the speed up and make up time rather than slow it up to save fuel. Single engine taxi is a popular one across the board, and at wonderful JFK during the push we'll shut them both down and run the APU if we're gonna be sitting a while, which isn't all that uncommon as far as I know.

single engine taxi and use the apu as little as possible..........a lot of cross bleed starts. also theyve been on us about 4 degree slopes vs 3 degree. jury is still out on that one. 4 degree leaves little room if atc decides to slap you with crossing restriction.

Just syphon gas from your competitors aircraft.

4 Degree glideslope is absolutely do-able...we use 3.8 all the time (at about 3K fpm) and never hit over 320 KIAS...you can do well over that in the CRJ-200 (almost 4K), without the boards even.

get a vector!

I love how we at Republic go out of our way to save gas for US Air since they pay the bill. SE taxi, Cross Bleed starts, GPU ASAP. Yet I have yet to see a Mainline US Airways aircraft not sitting in line with us in Philly for 45 minutes without at least 2 engines some times 3(apu) burning.

The other great part is sitting in the alley for 15 minutes while the ramp crew finishes the last few minutes of Montel or Springer before they bother to come out and park you. I like having to beg for the ground power too. Its almost as though no one has told the people at Airways that they are loosing money because fuel costs so much, but I bet they have.

Welcome to the life of a Contractor...

On another note, I am completely boggled by how, all of a sudden (after one heavy company-wide email), there is ground power for us everywhere. I haven't had to spin the APU after landing in nearly two weeks. Very impressive.

But then you have guys that just didn't "get the memo." Flew with one awhile back that refused to let me shut the number 1 down on taxi-in because he didn't want to run on a single Gen...?? :confused:

I know a guy who had an APU failure while sitting out there on a taxiway I believe in Memphis waiting for #'s and have to get towed back to the gate to do a huffer start. Also talked to a guy who said the power did not transfer to the apu fast enough and lost all brakes and steering until it switched back over, while he went rolling down a sloping taxiway (intending to just hold the brakes). Just food for thought. I won't be shutting both down as long as the captain is alright with it.

Single engine taxi is common practice. I personally use a 3.5 degree GS on my vertical planning which seems to help by being able to bring the thrust levers almost all the way back, yet still provide BA for pressurization. I also make a slightly steeper climb which seems to greatly help since you can pull the power back sooner with essentially the same distance traveled, maybe a 275/.70 climb instead of 290/.78 makes an immense difference. If you have a tailwind, why not do that?? Also if you have a tailwind, why not slow it down to your original estimated arrival time? Slow it up to LRC if that's what it takes to bring your arrival time to estimated, but save fuel if you can!!

I would like to point out that I am not trying to help the company, which is apparently evil, but rather trying to save some fuel for my greedy SELF so by the time I turn 45 we won't be driving electro-hybrid cars. LoL

Oh and I never got a message in my V file or anything of the like informing me to slow it down, release still shows ~.74 for cruise... not sure what the media was talking about because I haven't heard anything on my side about it...

Have you folks been given any "official" changes to speed profiles to save fuel??

Oh and I like your avatar... ;)

Heh. The good 'ole "Oklahoma Credit Card".

Accepted worldwide, but best used in the dead of night when no one else is looking.

Single engine taxi and APU stuff obviously. Keeping it clean as long as possible on approach and trying to get as close to a power off decent as possible. Also its a big waste when someone avoids a buildup by 20 miles and gets way off course.

I hate that.

That twenty miles is better than a hailstone through your windscreen (if you're downwind, of course).

Agreed about keeping it clean. It blows me away when a Captain will call for flaps 20, just to bump the thrust up to compensate for drag. Bring the power back first. Then, and only then, if you still need to go down faster, dirty it up a bit.

Common sense, people!

Has anyone mentioned adjust climb profiles for winds.
go up fast for tail wind,
go up slow for head wind to make foward speed.

That was something that was taught to me on cross countries as a student pilot.

Yeah it makes perfect sense. I flew with a captain the other day who claimed "a parabola profile gives the best fuel economy".... I suppose that is only if you are going to climb ALL the way to service ceiling and flame out on your way back down.

If you want to save fuel with no wind or a tailwind, climb steeper. You'll get more altitude in less time, get the same distance, and be able to pull the thrust levers back sooner AND at a higher altitude which saves 100's of pounds in a CRJ...

Also why not fly higher if it's smooth and #'s show it'll save fuel??? No one has mentioned that one. In the Lear 25, at FL270 and .76 we'd burn around 2200 per hour total, at FL430/450 it would be around 1500 per hour total, while at .79

I have seen the same thing, but I am not as observant as other with remembering fuel flows and stuff like that.

But if you get up in the wind quick with a steep climb and do not pull the power back you still save gas when you think of the leg in terms of time as well. I will admit I am bad about getting up into the tail wind quick and then flying red line everywhere up there, and sometimes with poor forecasting of winds aloft, you can shave 20 minutes or better off that leg.
People like that, I like that more time for food and smokes, or an extra 20 minutes in the hotel bed when you have been reduced anyway.

There seems to be about million different way to do the same task in the industry. I for one sure have enjoyed some of this post. While most of it is common sense, it is nice to see that I am not a rouge pilot out there trying to re invent the wheel.

Reeves

Does it bug anyone else when you get a captain that doesnt like to single engine taxi after landing for stupid reasons like "it's a short taxi anyway" or "i might need to do a tight turn somewhere on taxi in".

Or even better they wanna save gas by single engine taxi out but then run max cruise the entire way there even though we are showing 30 minutes early.

Single engine taxi seems to be the biggest go go juice saver that I have seen....if you add it all up it seems to make pretty good sense.

Short answer, NO. He's the captain, if he wants both engines for taxi that is not your call to argue. Lets just bet he may have enough time in the airplane to decide what he wants. When you get to taxi from the left seat you can decide how you want to do it.

Four stripes on your shoulders doesn't mean that you're automatically brilliant. I'd say it's a safe bet that if the majority of your company single-engine taxi's, and this guy isn't comfortable with it fairly often (for whatever reasons), he probably shouldn't be in that seat.

There are locations on certain airports where being single engine can make for a difficult time maneuvering, or can make it "unsafe" for others such as F14 in ORD, where you get the short push and have to do an about face to leave the gate, i've seen plenty of passengers nearly get knocked over from guys leaving there single engine and revving it up to god knows where just to make the turn.

Not arguing for it or against it, but what it comes down to is the captain's decision. When you're the captain, it'll be your airplane to decide what to do with it, as you see fit.

And 3 stripes means that if it isn't affecting safety of flight or busting a FAR you deal with it...

I never said that I have ever attempted a mutiny...?

'You' was meant in the general sense. Since I'm a FO again, it includes me as well.

Gotcha...and yes, it's an incredibly fine line we have to walk as an FO...