30 minute reserve

On 2005-06-14, Peter R. wrote:
Chris wrote:

If there is a head wind the difference is going be even greater.

A truly proficient pilot will plan fuel consumption based on forecasted
winds aloft for that day, any diversions needed, and then add 30
minutes (or whatever his/her personal minimums) for regulation
requirements.

And actually watch the fuel gauges. Instructors teaching that the fuel
gauges are useless (an oft-repeated canard) are teaching dangerous
rubbish. If a fuel gauge is useless it's broken and needs to be fixed.

With aircraft I regularly fly, one of the things I try to do is get a
handle on how the fuel gauges behave. I don't want to depend solely on
time for 'how much fuel do I have left' - I want the gauges to work, or
how do I tell when there's abnormal fuel consumption, or that the plane
has less than the expected fuel level? The fuel gauges should be an
important cross-check (along with knowing how much time is in the
tanks). If the fuel gauges ever show less fuel than you expect there
should be in the tank, find somewhere to land now and check it out.
Don't dismiss them.

I've already saved myself great embarrasment by having the fuel gauges
in my cross-check (I've related the story here before) - but in brief,
the gauges showed less than expected, so I landed significantly short of
my intended destination to check it out. Sure enough - the fuel gauges
were right - I had less fuel than I expected. Had I not been checking,
I'd have landed at my intended destination on fumes, probably with about
enough fuel to make a single go-around and pattern.

Now I fly across water, I'm even more paranoid about it. Most ditchings
happen because there was too much air in the fuel tanks!

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"