Cripes, and when WE wrote the book on flying the "Big Twins" over the N Atlantic, making use of the N Atlantic Track System, it was called EROPS (I think). Or, maybe EROPS replaced ETOPS. Very confusing but the logic remains much the same.
Are you referring to the early days of the B-767 on the NATS when under ICAO rules it could go 90 minutes from an adequate airport but the FAA still required compliance with the 60-minute rule?
As discussed in another recent thread here, the FAA granted an exemption from FAR 121.161 as early as 1977 for operations in the 'Caribbean Sea'. Many legacy U.S. airline Ops Specs still pay homage to this '75-minute rule' in 'benign areas of operation' even though it is nowadays somewhat obscure.
B767 a really nice a/c for those trips, but when operated at max range it's the same as any other a/c. Distance/GS/Time/Fuel. Laws of physics no matter what the accountants want.
Over the years the geniuses on the ground have come up with ever more devious ways to put on less fuel on overwater flights whilst (I'm picking up the PPRuNe dialect
) complying with the regs.
That planned re-dispatch has been used for decades to get around the flag operations reserve fuel requirements. On one fleet it was discovered that flights had been dispatched for years on a milk run route with the plane too heavy to legally land at the initial dispatch airport. Don't know if the feds ever found out about it but at least the paperwork was quietly changed and more ICAO/flag ops reserve fuel added for a more distant initial dispatch airport.
I don't see the planned re-dispatch much anymore but the latest ETOPS trick in the vogue seems to be to only list one ETOPS alternate. You don't have an ETP (duh
) but you get a CFP (Critical Fuel Point).
Even if there are plenty of airports within the diversion mileage (the ETOPS rules are in minutes but the area of ops is defined by mileages derived from still air flight in the Ops Specs where I've worked). Somehow, listing only one ETOPS alternate takes advantage of regulatory wordplay between 'adequate' and 'suitable' airports, decreases the weather constraints and lets the company put on, you guessed it, less fuel.
