Question about Fuel Reserves

[Bman2006 7]

I have been talking with a friend about fuel planning and I have a couple of questions for you pros out there.

 

1) I see in the FAR 91 that I should be landing with 45 minutes of fuel + ALT airport fuel + planned hold + 5% contingency. While working my way through the fuel planning in the Tutorial #2 manaul, I didn't see any specific mention about how much fuel you should add to stay within regulations.

 

Should I be planning my fuel to also include this 45 minutes in addition all the other items like contingency, alternate, holds etc?

 

Sec. 91.167 — Fuel requirements for flight in IFR conditions.

 

(a) No person may operate a civil aircraft in IFR conditions unless it carries enough fuel (considering weather reports and forecasts and weather conditions) to—

(1) Complete the flight to the first airport of intended landing;

(2) Except as provided in paragraph (B) of this section, fly from that airport to the alternate airport; and

(3) Fly after that for 45 minutes at normal cruising speed or, for helicopters, fly after that for 30 minutes at normal cruising speed.

(B) Paragraph (a)(2) of this section does not apply if:

(1) Part 97 of this chapter prescribes a standard instrument approach procedure to, or a special instrument approach procedure has been issued by the Administrator to the operator for, the first airport of intended landing; and

(2) Appropriate weather reports or weather forecasts, or a combination of them, indicate the following:

(i) For aircraft other than helicopters. For at least 1 hour before and for 1 hour after the estimated time of arrival, the ceiling will be at least 2,000 feet above the airport elevation and the visibility will be at least 3 statute miles.

(ii) For helicopters. At the estimated time of arrival and for 1 hour after the estimated time of arrival, the ceiling will be at least 1,000 feet above the airport elevation, or at least 400 feet above the lowest applicable approach minima, whichever is higher, and the visibility will be at least 2 statute miles.

 

 

Question 2) How does FSBuild generate their indicated "reserves"? - it appears that the 45 minutes that is noted above.

With that being said, when putting in the reserve figure in the FMC, should that reserves value simply be this 45 minutes fuel value OR is it 45 minutes + alt + hold + contingency?

 

Thanks

 

Benjamin.

[Ralgh 43]

In real world ops the dispatch computer will typically give us somewhere around 3500 pounds of fuel for the 45 minute reserve. I don't know any 737 pilots that would voulantarily plan to land with that little fuel most prefer to have more than 5000 pounds on arrival and that's the low end. The dispatcher will typically add some extra fuel automatically to make sure we have at least that much fuel. Besides Boeing has a QRH prcedure for if you get the low fuel indication and that will happen when a tank hits 2000 pounds and since limitations say the tanks need to stay ballanced that would be 4000 pounds total. It just seems like a bad idea to land with so little fuel you are in a situation the manufacturer considers it an abnormal even though it meets the FAA requirements for minimum fuel.

 

In answer to your question the reserve fuel should be in addition to any other contingency fuel you have planned.

[Bman2006 7]

Thanks for the reply -

 

So, as you noted the reserve is "in addition" too all other contingencies including alternate airfields, hold etc - many time you can land with say:

 

2000 lbs alt

2610 lbs hold

5% contingency

 

+ 5000 reserves

___________

 

Total fuel on board upon original route arrival and no surprises... 9500 lbs.

[Spin737 102]

You're crossing regs. You talk about FAR91, so drop the contingency and 5% bit.

 

US domestic is simple: carry enough fuel to go from destination to your alternate and fly 45 minutes thereafter.

[Bman2006 7]

Got it - I was just going from the tutorial. There's my confusion..

 

Carry enough fuel to fly and try to land at your destination, fly to your alternate and land with 45 minutes of fuel.

 

Done.

 

So, something like this...

 

[Spin737 102]

You don't even need that hold fuel, unless you're expecting a delay.

[adamant365 28]

I always plan so that while I'm at the gate, before turning on the APU, I check my FMC PROG page and make sure that at destination, the calculated fuel remaining is:

 

7,200 lbs. - 737-900

7,000 lbs. - 737-800

6,800 lbs. - 737-700

6,600 lbs. - 737-600

 

These are the minimum numbers I'll accept. I also try not to go more than 1,000 lbs. over these numbers because then it's just non-revenue cargo. As for what I enter in the reserves field:

 

5.1 - 737-900

5.0 - 737-800

4.8 - 737-700

4.7 - 737-600

 

So all told, that gives me ~ 2,000 of taxi + contingency per flight. I know that after all is said and done, I will land at my primary destination, no holding or go-arounds with about 6,000 to 6,400 in the tanks. Since I started doing it like this, I have not had a "USING RSV FUEL" (unless I've diverted) and never had a "LOW FUEL" caution. As far as I know, having more than 1,500 lbs. above the reserves will not make the company happy. I know that being safe is better, but there are number crunchers that don't like carrying around extra weight. All of these numbers I have gleaned from multiple Google searches, topics in these forums, etc. It's taken me long time to get it as realistic as I can, and these numbers seem to work.

 

Please someone let me know if my numbers are way off...I'd like to hear what real-world pilots think.

[Spin737 102]

You can't have "hard" numbers for this field since your Alt fuel varies

[japascoe 98]

Small note, I haven't read the 2nd tutorial (shame on me, I know :P), but since it's a flight within Europe it would most likely be conducted under EU-OPS, which has different rules on required fuel reserves than the FAA domestic rules.

[skysurfer 76]

Hi.

 

It depends on where you at. I saw you mentioned FAA regulations. Part 91 flights are usually charters or ferry flights even if those are passenger aircraft. If you carry passengers and any revenue payload, then you have to comply with Part 121 Ops, not part 91. Part 121 has a bit different fuel requirements and those are not the same for Domestic and Flag Ops.

Flag Ops:

• To fly to and land at the airport to which it is released;
  
• After that, to fly for a period of 10 percent of the total time required to fly from the airport of departure to, and land at, the airport to which it was released;
  
• After that, to fly to and land at the most distant alternate airport specified in the flight release, if an alternate is required; and
  
• After that, to fly for 30 minutes at holding speed at 1,500 feet above the alternate airport (or the destination airport if no alternate is required) under standard temperature conditions.
  

Domestic

• To fly to the airport to which it is dispatched;
  
• Thereafter, to fly to and land at the most distant alternate airport (where
  
• required) for the airport to which dispatched; and
  
• Thereafter, to fly for 45 minutes at normal cruising fuel consumption
  

You don't have to have any Contingency and/or extra fuel per regulations but some company may require Contingency fuel and those 5% of "C" fuel you mentioned came from nowhere. Like I said, some airlines may require it but it is in their Ops Specs but not in FAA regs. It is good to have it both for weather deviations or ATC delays... But there are time you are tank limited and do not have a room for any extra fuel at all. We dispatch B777 from LLBG to KEWR and or on Polar routes VIDP to KEWR, the same story. You have about 20-30 mins of holding fuel in order to take every one on board. That's why we do some crazy things like FAA Exemptions to reduce en route reserve 10% to 5% and/or Re-dispatch to put more gas. And dispatcher is not a magician. If we have a room, we'll put more gas, if not, sorry, we have to deal with it.

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[Birdman 0]

Hello Captains,

 

Not to hijack the thread , but a question on fuel reserves. A common daily route for WestJet would be say, Calgary-Winnipeg-Thunder Bay-Toronto- One way..each leg being 1.5 to 2 hours apart ..roughly. Would you load enough for the entire route, or at the risk of carrying non revenue cargo (extra fuel weight) would you fuel up for the first leg and top off at each stop along the route?

 

Ed

[Spin737 102]

Hello Captains,

 

Not to hijack the thread , but a question on fuel reserves. A common daily route for WestJet would be say, Calgary-Winnipeg-Thunder Bay-Toronto- One way..each leg being 1.5 to 2 hours apart ..roughly. Would you load enough for the entire route, or at the risk of carrying non revenue cargo (extra fuel weight) would you fuel up for the first leg and top off at each stop along the route?

 

Ed

That all depends on the cost of fuel at the outstations vs the cost of tankering.

[Alaaar 34]

Hello all and sorry, just three questions?

 

1-Is fuel consumption figures used at operating the aircraft under flaps & gear down, taxiing, holding, base fuel and extra.... are applicable for the 900,700 & 600 as well ? I understand that the trip fuel is calculated by the FMC so it must be different from various airplanes

2-I couldn't see any compensation for winds ?? does it takes place in real world calculations?

3-The wiglets should save 5% of fuel as I believe I read somewhere? should this considered while applying the fueling model on none wiglets aircraft.

 

Thanks and sorry if it was mentioned somewhere.

 

 

Thanks & sorry

[Bman2006 7]

Ed - thanks for the detailed response.

 

Just to clarify:

 

Part 91: Private or Business (not paid-for by passenger)

Part 135: Charter, on-demand, freight etc. (paid revenue, including sightseeing etc., some limited schedule stuff can fall into this)

Part 121: Scheduled operations (e.g. Continental)

 

You noted Part91 to be "charters". Charters fall under Part 135, right ?

 

"Part 91 flights are usually charters"

 

Thanks-

Benjamin

[Spin737 102]

Ed - thanks for the detailed response.

 

Just to clarify:

 

Part 91: Private or Business (not paid-for by passenger)

Part 135: Charter, on-demand, freight etc. (paid revenue, including sightseeing etc., some limited schedule stuff can fall into this)

Part 121: Scheduled operations (e.g. Continental)

 

You noted Part91 to be "charters". Charters fall under Part 135, right ?

 

"Part 91 flights are usually charters"

 

Thanks-

Benjamin

Airlines doing charters usually follow Part 91, IIRC