So honest question, what is wrong with departing BNE on a day when the dew point is only two off the temp and calm, with loading I dunno 3200kg for MEL and another 1-2T for whatever extra holding you might need due forecast for MEL so that they arrived with 2T+ in Melbourne? Under these circumstances I am not expecting 1hr for Adelaide as well as 1hr holding in Melbourne. You get to or close to Adelaide, find that its clagged in and not going to be better any time soon, so off to MEL with prudent fuel.
Is that outside the fuel capacity of a B738? I doubt it. Yes I know it will cost a burn of 100kg or something to carry it, but MIA cost a lot more.
One other point, MIA might be technically able to take a 737, but it is not in the QF/VA routes surely except for emergency use, which I guess they found themselves in. And from my understanding they didn't really have MIA as a suitable alternate either.
Side note:
Have had email and SMS agreeing with my concern mentioned earlier about passengers one day wanting to question fuel loads and alternates. I also had one good mate and B738 Captain reckon I am on a flogging to nowhere, and he may well be right!
But I think he missed the point just as all the others who protested.
If there was a sharp rise in drunk pilots, unlicensed (India) or unrated or not current pilots flying and whats more this could just as easily be bare bones fuel causing more MIA events, and the public hear about it, don't you think the public, and the passengers would start asking for proof the pilots were current/rated/licensed and not intoxicated or under the influence of drugs? Of course not, it would come as no surprise would it. So the best way to avoid that is by not giving rise to alarm. Same might go for bones of your ass fuel loads too if it got out of hand.
We get on these things in good faith that the crew are trained, current, not intoxicated etc because the law, common sense and companies would not want anything but. But fuel is a fuzzy variable, and a company can vary the variable as can the crew, so we have to really have blind faith they are doing their job correctly when we step aboard. None of us want to sit down thinking.....has this guy loaded enough to avoid an MIA.
If you explained fuel calc's well enough to the two B738 loads in MIA, and surveyed them, I wonder if they would want to have a better education on what they are straping themselves into next time. I am sure most of the public think they fill 'er up just like the family car.
They did not need 15T to do Adelaide (could have had BN if they did
), but a couple of tonnes more might have meant I never even had this thought about what will the public perception be one day. So to those who protested, it is not really me you are spitting your dummy at it is the possible public perception of your profession. Think about that for a while.
I am actually on your side guys/girls! 