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Old 28th September 2025 | 21:11
  #14 (permalink)  
framer
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Joined: Sep 2008
: ATPL
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From: 41S174E
If I may emphasize, always consider the discretionary fuel you decide to take as extra time in the air for a specific purpose.
This is good advice. Know what your machine burns in ten minute blocks so that when you’re deciding on your final figure you can add ( for example ) ten minutes for the hold that you’re 80% sure you’ll get inbound due to the runway configuration for example. Also, when you shut down on the gate, point at the fuel gauges and think “am I happy with that amount?” as that will form part of your future decision making.
Question for the OP; do you have a figure in mind that you want to land with on a perfect day? For example, if the TAF is perfect, the traffic is light, there are no MEL’s etc….. what do you think is a sensible amount of fuel to plan to land with? For me this is the foundation of my planning decisions. Think about arriving on that perfect day and then getting a moderately complex non normal when on final approach, doing the missed approach, running the checklist, doing the second approach and landing…..what do you want to see on the gauges when you land? How much did you burn in the missed approach and running the checklist? Do you want to have 30 mins fuel left when doing the second approach? Everyone will be slightly different on this one but figure out what yours is and tell us if you’re brave enough to Again, good question.
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