Two fine points of FAR interpretation

Hi George,

2. We all know about the minimum fuel requirement for take-off. If
one were to land with less fuel in the tanks than the required
reserve (and without a good reason for using part of the reserve),
can the FAA violate you for negligence?

The regulations require that you have sufficient fuel on takeoff.
They do not require that you have the required reserve when you land.
If checked, you might be required to demonstrate how you calculated
the reserve. You might be violated if they think you did not do a
good job of that. I've never heard of such a case in non-commercial
flights, but it's certainly possible.

To my knowledge, airliner pilots quite regularly file flight plans to
closer airports than their real destinations in order to be allowed to
take of with less fuel than what would be required including reserve
for the full distance. At some point during the flight, they re-file a
new flight plan the the real destination, by which time the remaining
fuel is sufficient for the rest of the flight including required
reserve. consequently, they land with less fuel than what would have
been required reserve for the whole distance.

Can anyone confirm this practice?

regards,
Friedrich

--
for personal email please remove "entfernen" from my adress