Whilst 411A may have expressed himself in rather a forthright manner, his reasoning is absolutely correct. No-one should arrive with such a dangerously low fuel state and suddenly state that they "don't have a go-around capability".
He's also correct about the definition of 'no delay expected' at LHR - I remember that coming in when revising for ATPL Air Law over 10 years ago....
Commercial pressures and 'Fuel Nazis' seem to be having a dangerously influence on mandatory Air Transport practice; will this only stop when someone has to fly a go-around and then finds that they're in command of rather an inefficient glider? What would happen to the crew if, following the decision of some 'Fuel Nazi' they'd called 'company' when approaching LPD for somewhere for which they did have mandatory reserves indicating their intention to divert to the legal alternate rather than to press on illegally in the hope of making their destination? Although I don't fly commercially, we operate to precisely the same mandates in our Air Transport operations and our ac commanders wouldn't think twice about changing the fuel load or even re-negotiating the itinerary if the contingency fuel available required that the en-route decision point process ('reduced contingency') was likely to be needed. If fuel states are emperilled by commercial pressures as routinely as some posting on this thread would indicate, surely internal company reporting procedures should highlight the problem to the Chief Pilot - and he/she should take up the point with 'management'?
It's not something resticted to minor airlines; a couple of weeks or so ago I heard a well-kown Big Airline pleading with London ATCC for the most efficient profile possible as, inbound from JFK, they were "a little low in fuel reserves today....."
Perhaps the problem is the advent of huggy-fluffy 'business-orientated' pilots on the flight deck rather than the hoary old salts of yesteryear - and the emergence of a somewhat compliant-spine culture in the LHS rather than the old "Kick 'em off and give me the fuel" approach of the past?
Last edited by BEagle; 7th October 2002 at 06:21.