COMAIR 20 minutes til flameout; No Problem

[Microclimates]

I think New York had a bad experience quite a few years ago with an Avianca plane that ran out of fuel and crashed. There were a whole bunch of other factors involved, including a disfunctional cockpit and CRM. But in a nutshell these guys declared minimum fuel when in fact they were already of fumes. they flamed out at the outer marker going to JFK.

 

[The_Russian]

At "The Academy" 20 minutes of fuel was enough to get from Sanford to Melbourne! PLENTY of gas.

"Sanford groooouuuunnd...Cutlass 5267U,....we're on the southwest ramp.....information bravooooooooo......READY TO TAXI!!!!"

MLB chubies! Yeah!

 

[Dirty Sanchez]

At "The Academy" 20 minutes of fuel was enough to get from Sanford to Melbourne! PLENTY of gas.

AMAZING!! You can probably get from SFB to MLB even faster in a 152 if both people are wearing pilot uniforms (one white and one blue).

 

[The_Russian]

When I was there we didn't have to wear uniforms. We were not professionals. Obviously the plane went slower.

 

[lowery21]

Just the other night going into EWR our fuel was lower than we would have liked. We accepted a re-route early that was supposed to protect us from having to hold. That cost us 800 lbs. Guess what? We had to hold anyways. They held us twice on the philbo both with efc times that were shameful. We did not declare min fuel, but advised ATC of our time from such declaration.

The ace up our sleeve was an FA that was getting close to max time by the fars. We talked to our dispatch, who talked to tracon. Where ever we set down, was going to be the end of the trip. Apparently we really cut in line...to the point where apprch at ewr asked us what our emergency was.

"There is no emergency. We are close to min fuel and having to divert."

'Well, you cut in front of about 12 airplanes so...'

"Regardless of the verbiage, we are here"(CA was great)

so they got us in.

It appears that there is still some vagueness in regards to the ATC guys passing along information (just like Avianca). State your desires/situation boldly guys.

 

[Oakum_Boy]

If they hadn't declared MINIMUM FUEL at 45 min remaining on landing, that is a problem. Regardless of whatever else may have transpired, in the USA, a declaration of MIN FUEL has weight and there's nothing bad or illegal about being in that condition.

 

[The_Russian]

From what I know, all OM manuals state that you must declare an emergency at 45 min fuel remaining. How you can get to 20 minutes of fuel without other factors involved, I don't know. From the info we have here, it was stupid and unsafe for the crew to get themselves into that situation without being assertive about their emergency situation.

 

[Oakum_Boy]

20 minutes is like 600-700 lbs per side. Scary.

 

[Stifler's Mom]

Just shut one down, then you'll have twice as much fuel/time left.

 

[regionalcap]

From what I know, all OM manuals state that you must declare an emergency at 45 min fuel remaining. How you can get to 20 minutes of fuel without other factors involved, I don't know. From the info we have here, it was stupid and unsafe for the crew to get themselves into that situation without being assertive about their emergency situation.

Our manuals stated that you should declare "MIN FUEL" not declare an emergency with 45 minutes remaining.