PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Easy PAN PAN "Low Fuel" LGW 1/3/15
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Old 2nd Mar 2015, 22:06
  #27 (permalink)  
Pininstauld
 
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: Limoges/Sussex
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Move along - Nothing to see here

The company culture (and SOP) at EZY is to take plan fuel unless there are sound operational reasons for doing otherwise.

The PAN call is triggered when the captain calculates that the aircraft "may" land with less than final reserve fuel (i.e. 1.0 to 1.2 tonnes typically).

The MAYDAY call is triggered when the captain calculates that the aircraft "will" land with less than final reserve fuel.

As a skipper I usually found one or other "sound operational reason" to justify having something in hand over plan fuel. The company wouldn't have agreed with my reasoning but I always thought it better to land at the planned destination, and still be able to reach the alternate legally, following an unexpected go-around. Minimum fuel might be OK but only provided that everything in the OFP has been calculated correctly - sadly I found this wasn't always the case.

There were at least 2 "landing below-final reserve" incidents while I was there, but I never saw any change of policy so presumably the bean counters still think they've got the right balance between cost and safety.

Above my pay grade to comment on that.
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