PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Cui Bono? fuel ordering and KPI?
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Old 18th Nov 2017, 22:56
  #43 (permalink)  
mrdeux
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Age: 68
Posts: 365
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When they give me an instruction, in writing, to carry min op fuel I'll be happy to do so. Just as I'm sure they'll be happy to go pick the aircraft up from wherever it ends up. And any interview would be recorded. Even the mention of fuel would be intimidation, and subject to a report directly to CASA.

Reminds me of the time they got snarky about the 767 pilots who were offloading cargo on some of the Brisbane to Singapore flights, so that they could ensure they'd have 60 minutes of holding on arrival.

Management came out and said that they didn't want cargo offloaded, and that they were prepared to accept the risk. Now, such a statement would assume that they knew exactly what they were risking, and what the odds were. The following week, over 50% of the flights diverted, and a couple of them terminated. So, obviously the actual odds were high, but what they hadn't actually thought through was what they were actually risking. The flights were being performed under what was called the 'op spec', which basically allowed a 2 man crew operation to be planned to 8:30 flight time, but which simultaneously took away the pilots' ability to extend to 9 hours. The flight that didn't terminate breached the rules. So, if a diversion took place, the pilots would not have any option but to terminate the flight.

The next week, all operations using -300s were planned with 60 minutes, and with -200s an SO was added to the crew.
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