Fuel Panning

[Guest venquessa]

I'm doing a flight from London Stansted to Ibiza. 737-700EGSS - Lam SID, DCT SFD, DCT SITET, un859 TOLSO, TOLSO Arrival, RWN undecided yet.Trip distance is 819nm. Aircraft Max ZFW.Looking up that distance in the fuel load estimate I get the figure, 9.7 - 2:04 for 800nm.I needed 820nm so I rounded it up to 10,000lbs.There is usually a strong headwind down over France and Spain, so I accounted for a 60knot headwind to be sure, (I've seen it as high as 75nots at 35,000).2 hours in a 60 knot headwind accounts for another 120nm. So I looked up, 940nm and got the figure,11.8 - 2:32 for 1000nmAdding in the further half hour with the headwind to the 940nm above gives,970nm nam including wind correction. Well below the 1000nm fuel I accounted for.So enroute fuel should be 11,800lbs.I totalled up the following.Final Reverses: 2,500lbsAlternate (Majorca, Menorca or Barcelona): 3,000lbsHolding Fuel: 2,000lbs.Total landing fuel = 7,500lbs.11.8 + 7.5 = 19.3 x1000lbs.I boarded about 19,800lbs.I forgot, taxi fuel and 1000lbs of the reverses should be in the center tank on landing.I'm not entirely sure I will land with 7,500lbs of fuel though, I might, but using the above method I have come up quite close to reserves before. It seems to be burning faster than it should and I don't feel that confident in the method I am using.Is there anything apart from taxi fuel I have missed?Thanks.

[Guest venquessa]

I landed and taxi'ed to the gate with, 6,500lbs on board. So... if I had of added 500lbs taxi fuel each end, I would have been spot on. Is 500lbs both ends too much taxi fuel?Thanks.

[Guest hlm65]

Hi,I think 500lbs for taxi allowance is not too much, it could be way too low.I got a long queue at Denver a couple of weeks ago before takeoff and I burnt almost 800 kgs (=1750 lbs), taxi and queing (was number 11).So, better to have something more in the tanks.As you may know, three are the most unuseful things in aviation:- the runway BEHIND- the height ABOVE- the fuel LEFT in the fuel bowser...Happy landings !

[Guest venquessa]

Good point, you can always have too little fuel, but... and the reason I like to try and practice fuel planning is that I am sure airlines don't like it when pilots cart thousands and thousands of pounds of unneeded fuel around.I know it isn't that much of a burden on domestic and short haul flights, but long range it might make an impact on the time factor, let alone fuel economy itself carrying the extra weight.Also, there is a cut off point on a max ZFW to MTOW where, if the pilot decided to take an extra few 1000lbs on top of the normal planned fuel, just in case, that some peeps or more likely bags have to be de-boarded.If you needed that fuel, your a good pilot, if you do it continuosly and don't need it, your airline might have something to say. So.. Getting the fuel plan right is always good.Thanks for your comments.