Originally Posted by
mikewil
Is your post a wind up?
Say you figure out you are 5 minutes short on your fixed reserve at your ultimate destination being an aerodrome with a 2km 30 metre wide asphalt runway with refuelling facilities, you are going to land in a farmers paddock 5 minutes short of your destination and potentially kill yourself running in to power lines or risk bursting into flames with all the useful fuel still in your aircraft when you hit unseen small obstacles when on the ground?
Suit yourself....
No my post was not a wind up, and I would know well before reaching 35 minutes of fuel left that I would be landing with less that reserve. A precautionary landing also requires planning, it is a procedure everyone has been taught and takes normally 10 minutes or so to ascertain the size, shape, surface, surrounds etc.
The main reasons why light aircraft run low on fuel would be due to weather or being lost. They may not even know there is a runway nearby. If I knew there was a runway nearby and I could get in that is where I would land, it is the safer outcome.