Originally Posted by
simon001
Okay. Let me ask a "practice vs. theory" question on fuel:
If the forecast weather was ideal, both along the route of flight and at the destination, and the traffic at the destination expected to be light, might an airline pilot really only carry just 45 minutes of reserve fuel?
It's all about money. It costs money to carry extra fuel so it’s quite possible to release the aircraft with just 45 minutes reserve. In reality there would probably be a bit extra. Airlines have an immense date base of flight date. Say the noon DTW-IAH flight averages 18 minutes of taxi time. The release might call for 30 minutes taxi fuel. If the plane gets off in 15 minutes they’ve got a minute or two extra holding fuel. If they started with just 18 minutes taxi fuel and it took 20 minutes to get to the runway they’d have to go back for more fuel and that would also have costs.