Is Don,
You stated:
Quite why dispatch calculated the fuel to the kilo, sometimes as low as 9T, based on the fact that the weather was forecast to be 100' above the alternate minima never ceased to amaze me.
With respect, perhaps your outfit is different but as for mine, if they published a larger figure when there was no legal necessity for an alternate to make me feel more comfortable where would it end?
The fuel they publish on the plan is a legal minimum, me and my offsider are paid the big money to decide to either take it or take more. If they didn't publish the minimum legal, what figure would they publish? (would it have a comfort factor scale next to it)
In the circumstances you describe our contingency fuel will be different to many others but would still be a valid figure if we have some to allow for unforecast options.
I've often heard pilots say "they
want us to take X tonnes" (i.e. the minimum legal published on the plan) that is just not true, they want us to take what we believe we need to take to stay safe and satisfy the following criteria:
1) Is it legal?
2) is it safe?
3) Is it in the company's interest?
This third one is the catch all here if the minimum legal printed on the plan means you'll end up diverting then my mob will always want me to take more, they trust us to use discretion.