Minimum fuel for diversion

[ifleeplanes]

Being a bit sad I have been sitting reading my Ops Manual and have a query about fuel.

The manual states that should the crew find in a fuel check that the expected fuel at destination is less than the required alternate fuel plus the final reserve the commander must decide to either continue to the destination taking into account expected delays so as to land with not less than final reserve fuel. Or to divert to the alternate so as to not land at the alternate with less than final reserve fuel.

One get around has been to nominate the alternate as the destination and then 'divert' to the new alternate ie the original destination.

My query is that I always thought that by the letter of the law once you reached alternate fuel you had to divert. Reading this though I can still land at destination? Is this correct?

[flyburg]

Yes!!

On the ground during preflight planning you have to have a certain minimum fuel. Once the flight has started you can start to use common sense. What if you arrive at your destination, one with several runways and oké weather but a slight delay due to inbound peak. Your alternate has one runway and weather at mins?? There's no requirement to divert, the only requirement (and I'm not even sure if that's a legal requirement) is to be on the ground somewhere with final fuel reserve. If you anticipate landing with less it's an automatic mayday call

[Old Smokey]

ifleeplanes,

The answer is a qualified YES, but it depends upon Company Policy, and Company Policy must be approved by the relevant regulatory authority before incorporation of that policy within Operations Manuals. After approval by the authority, it then becomes "law".

Our Ops Manuals prescribe a similar 'loop-hole as yours, i.e. renomination of the Alternation as destination and 'divert' to the new alternate (the intended destination). In a fuel shortening situation they also allow us to proceed to the original destination if within 60 minutes, actual forecast and weather trend are above minimas, the airport has 2 independant non-intersecting runways etc. etc.

Regards,

Old Smokey

[Linton Chilcott]

UK CAA don't approve most of an Operations Manual. They do approve (or not!) the FTL, the MEL, and one or two other items. They only "have sight of" the rest of it.

This means that, if they don't like something, they can apply pressure to get it changed (but the operator can "negotiate" to keep it, or can simply prove that their own interpretation of the relevant rules is reasonable).

Whether or not the operator accepts the changes the CAA ask for / require, if something goes wrong, the CAA will never be liable as they haven't approved anything (other than the items mentioned in the first para above).

The text concerning whether to divert (which appears pretty much direct from the JAR template for writing an Ops Manual) does indeed leave the bulk of the decision to the common sense and airmanship of the captain, in consultation of course, with the rest of his flight crew.

[mbcxharm]

From JAR-OPS1: Appendix to 1.375

[(1)] If, as a result of an in-flight fuel
check, the expected fuel remaining on arrival at
the destination is less than the required alternate
fuel plus final reserve fuel, the commander must
take into account the traffic and the operational
conditions prevailing at the destination
aerodrome, along the diversion route to an
alternate aerodrome and at the destination
alternate aerodrome, when deciding [whether] to
proceed to the destination aerodrome or to divert,
so as to land with not less than final reserve fuel.