I've said this on another thread, but operating into HKG during the summer is getting to be a worry. The inaccurate forecasts, traffic-choked 'weather gaps' and the occasional really bad day when all the alternates fill up or are under the same weather system are holes in the classic cheese from Switzerland.
There was an incident last summer of multiple TCAS RA's when ATC 'lost it' in bad weather, also supposedly a 'turn back' to the reciprocal runway by a low-on-fuel wide-bodied airliner. If these are not 'heads up' incidents, I don't know what are. Another Asian summer is coming. We are not idiots, and we 'play the game' with the fuel uplift when conditions are benign. But otherwise we will NOT be pressured on fuel decisions by office wallahs or shiny-bottomed management pilots.
Perhaps the DFO should be concentrating a little more on his own department's basings administration and compliance with the law, rather than his pilots' 'fuel awareness'. A little bird tells me that the money that they will be paying in fines to the French government would otherwise pay for an awful lot of fuel...
Last edited by Captain Dart; 11th Feb 2013 at 07:55.