FAA fuel waivers

It's not a waiver, its a rule and it's nothing new. An airliner has to
carry enough fuel to get to it's destination, divert to it's alternate
plus 45 minutes. You can't have a rule that "you have to fill up".
Filling up might not be ENOUGH fuel. Don't worry about THIS one, almost
all captains, being cautious, add a little extra fuel over the required
fuel so they have some cushion. Fuel exhaustion with airliners is very
rare, it has happened, but it's not likely. They watch their fuel very
carefully.

On 9 Jun 2006 19:03:34 -0700, "Doug"
wrote:

It's not a waiver, its a rule and it's nothing new. An airliner has to
carry enough fuel to get to it's destination, divert to it's alternate
plus 45 minutes. You can't have a rule that "you have to fill up".
Filling up might not be ENOUGH fuel.

And filling up might also mean TOO MUCH fuel. The airplane must be
loaded less than its maximum takeoff weight. Satisfying that
requirement may entail leaving the tanks partially empty. For a short
trip, an airplane taking off with full tanks could still have so much
fuel aboard on arrival that it would above its maximum landing weight.
In that case, the aircraft must depart with less fuel.

Operating with reduced fuel loads has always been a part of safe and
legal operation of the aircraft. Filling the tanks completely could be
illegal and unsafe in some circumstances.

RK Henry