It may all be legal. But it scares the willies out of me.
Not the fact that an aircraft may be low on fuel on arrival at destination, you understand, but the thought of a pilot who's so confident that he plans it! Antigua, you are destined for management and make no mistake - always assuming of course that you're not there already and just setting an example.
There is simply NO fuel carried to cover ATC and/or other aeroplane cock-ups during the landing process.
There you are, that confidence again, Antigua. Obviously your aeroplane will never suffer a problem that takes a few minutes to sort out and there is just no way that
you will ever cock-up. It doesn't take much to block a runway for a few minutes - a hydraulic spill, burst tyre, birdstrike. All of these can happen on the nicest of nice days and just because there's another runway doesn't mean you get first dibs on it. And even if you are the customer (and that depends very much from where you look at the airline business) you, the pilot, are part of the team - e.g. no sales agents, no pax = no need for pilots. Everyone in the team has their job to do and their own responsibilities. If ATC send you around there?s a reason - believe me, no controller will do it unless there?s a real reason even if it's not apparent to you - and you can play your part by planning to have enough fuel that you (and your colleagues who are company people to the core) don't compound the problems by immediately calling an emergency. And I don't care if the rules say that you can operate that way, it doesn't make you right.
Well that should get your goat Antigua.
Reminds me of the joke about what's the difference between G*d and a British Airways Captain.
And just in case you've never heard it ....... G*d doesn't think he's an airline captain.