i'm trying to find the correct amount of reserve fuel for the 737-747 and 777. anyone know the GPH or LBS per hour for each? i've looked around but can't find anything. i'd mainly like the lbs per hour as there's less figuring. i'm aware of fuel for an alternate also. i understand reserve fuel is for about 1 hour plus the alternate? thanks, william

I hope my response in the other thread was useful, I'll have a stab at this one too.The laws specifying fuel policy are different for each country. Again, each airline will also have it's own Fuel Policy in its Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) specifying exactly how much reserve fuel should be taken. Therefore, again, there's no categorical answer to your question. However....In general, total fuel is made up of taxi, trip, contingency, alternate and reserve fuel.Taxi - Includes startup and APU burn (and taxi out to the active obviously)Trip - The amount of fuel you expect to use flying your route (including any en route winds, altitude restrictions and step climbs)Contingency - How much extra you think you may use for unforeseen circumstances (holding, aircraft not quite performing as advertised). I think in the UK it's something like 15 minutes or 5% of trip time (whichever is greater). My airline uses some clever statistical analysis on contingency so they just tell us statistically how much extra fuel that flight has used in the past, it's usually pretty accurate. I understand that ETOPS puts some extra fuel in here too ... but I'm shorthaul so I don't have to worry about that.Alternate - Fuel required for a go around, climb, cruise, descent and landing at the alternate airport.Reserve - This is the legal minimum fuel required to land with, landing with less than this means loads of paperwork, interviews with big scary people who can take your licence away and general unpleasantness for everyone involved ... so don't do it. We use 30 minutes (at planned landing wt and 1500ft above the intended landing airport).I hope this answers your question....Take care,Ian

>Reserve - >This is the legal minimum fuel required to land with, landing>with less than this means loads of paperwork, interviews with>big scary people who can take your licence away and general>unpleasantness for everyone involved ... so don't do it. We>use 30 minutes (at planned landing wt and 1500ft above the>intended landing airport).Hi,sometimes I've read they add a separate "holding fuel" (usually 30 minutes at 1500 ft as in your example) to "reserve fuel", while some other times it is not added (and included in "reserve fuel", as you said). Don't know which of the two is correct, though. :)Marco

Hi Marco,Different countries, different airlines, different SOP's, they're all different, so yeah, holding fuel can be added as well.Our holding fuel is part of "Contingency" fuel as depending on the time of day and destination it's never the same (arriving into LHR at 8am you're gonna need 20 mins minimum for holding, I've yet to hold approaching Brussels).I expect we're both correct in one way or another. As I said, fuel policy is laid out in the airlines SOPs which are derived from manufacturers data and from government aviation bodies. They all end up slightly different so there is no categorical right or wrong answer to this question.Take care,Ian

Trans Oceanic rules have a bit different reserve rules than overland rules.If you do not mind spending $30 US (plus shipping) for a printed manual by former Boeing captain Mike Ray I advise consider getting his 700 series pc sim book described at www.utem.com and sold there, amazon, and many flight sim retailers. I believe it can be downloaded from feelthere but it may be for registered owners only, not sure. I find the spiral bound manual very handy to have. It is for glass cockpit 700 series including FMC opns, flight considerations including weather and fuel planning, aircraft operating practice, etc. It applies genericly to the 700s without being aircraft specific so you use it with the performance tables. I found it of great value.You also may wish to visit www.b737.org.uk for some minimal performance data, white papers by real pilots, systems descriptions, some operating practices, etc.

thanks for the feedback guys. alot of good info as on my other post. thanks again, william