On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 02:54:28 GMT, "STEVEN SIMPSON"
wrote in EFrre.3671$1q5.2293@trnddc02::

I think that the pilot needs to know his aircraft and plan his rout
according to the range and speed of his aircraft.

Right. With full tanks, it's more about distance planning.

I asked the same question after my "little" close call.

I can see that the FAA may want to force pilots to carry some fuel
reserve to compensate for their possible certification inaccuracies
and the vagaries of government metrological forecasting, not to
mention possible pilot flight planning errors. If there were no fuel
reserve requirements at all, there would doubtless be many more fuel
exhaustion incidents occurring.

But the OP was referring to the dispirit airspeeds of aircraft
resulting in widely varying distance capabilities as a result of the
30 minute VFR fuel reserve requirement. Perhaps the arbitrary 30
minutes doesn't concern distance to a safe landing site as much as
guaranteeing 30 minutes search time for a place to set down or better
weather. If the VFR fuel reserve requirement were about distance
instead of time, there would be an alternate destination airport
requirement as there is with IFR flight planning.