Declaring Minimum Fuel

[rumpletumbler]

So declaring minimum fuel means that if you get any delay you are likely to have a fuel related emergency. Whatever happened to VFR/IFR reserves? Wouldn't you be visited by your friendly neighborhood fed if you declared minimum fuel? If not, why?

 

[Pedro]

VFR/IFR Reserves are for planning purposes. You may encounter stronger headwinds or vectors enroute, which would increase the amount of fuel used durng the flight. So whe you are getting close to destination you may have to declare min fuel, with no visit from the feds. Now if your min fuel situation turns into a fuel emergency, and then into an accident, then the feds may want to look into your flight plan and fuel.

 

[Rattler71]

So declaring minimum fuel means that if you get any delay you are likely to have a fuel related emergency. Whatever happened to VFR/IFR reserves? Wouldn't you be visited by your friendly neighborhood fed if you declared minimum fuel? If not, why?

Declaring minimum fuel means you used more fuel than you planned and you are trying to stay alive. If the flight is at that point, the feds are the last thing on my mind. l



Rattler71

 

[rumpletumbler]

If someone declared minimum fuel then I would think they were pushing it for no reason unless you had no other viable alternate. Why wouldn't you stop and get some gas rather than push it that close?

 

[Bluto]

Have you ever flown in actual instrument conditions when the weather is bad just about everywhere? It sounds like you haven't. Stopping for gas is a great idea when you're poking holes in a Cessna. That's not always a viable option when you're flying passengers around in a 121 environment. Minimum fuel is simply an advisory to ATC and often nothing changes much operationally. It just gives them a heads-up that if they mess with you too much more (holds, vectors, etc.) then you may have to declare an emergency. It happens. Things are different when you're doing a x-c in a 172.

 

[Rattler71]

If someone declared minimum fuel then I would think they were pushing it for no reason unless you had no other viable alternate. Why wouldn't you stop and get some gas rather than push it that close?

well, there is always a reason that seems great at the time.
And you obviously have no idea of the pressure put on you as a Captain(self-induced or company).

Rattler71

 

[Gulfstream 200]

much can be aircraft dependent...

for example - 20 series Learjets or other turbojets - a few lengthy low level vectors and you go from IFR reserves to "minimum fuel" pretty quick.

luckily enough, many controllers understand this and are usually pretty helpful.......at least from my experience.

 

[Ty Webb]

Declaring minimum fuel means you used more fuel than you planned and you are trying to stay alive. If the flight is at that point, the feds are the last thing on my mind. l
Rattler71

Actually, "minimum fuel" is more of a "heads up" to ATC that you can't take any more delays . . . . or you will then have to declare an emergency.

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]5-85. MINIMUM FUEL ADVISORY[/font]

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]a. Pilot --[/font]

1. [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Advise ATC of your minimum fuel status when your fuel supply has reached a state where, upon reaching destination, you cannot accept any undue delay.
   
   [/font]
2. [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Be aware this is not an emergency situation, but merely an advisory that indicates an emergency situation is possible should any undue delay occur.
   
   [/font]
3. [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Be aware a minimum fuel advisory does not imply a need for traffic priority.
   
   [/font]
4. [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]If the remaining usable fuel supply suggests the need for traffic priority to ensure a safe landing you should declare an emergency account low fuel and report fuel remaining in minutes. (Reference -- Pilot/Controller Glossary, Fuel Remaining).[/font]

 

[BeckyAnne]

As someone already stated those who fly older jets can reach a minimum fuel situation fairly quick.

I’ve done it twice and both times ATC handled it as if it was routine and gave us no problems infact a USAir flight even offered to continue holding so ATC could get us down quicker which he did and we thanked them.

 

[User546]

We've had to declare min fuel before which turned into a fuel emergency after not receiving a lot of cooperation from controllers, and fortunately we weren't visited by the local Feds, since we did have to cut in the way of 6 airplanes coming into an international airport.

IFR/VFR reserves like everyone put is for flight planning purposes. Unfortunately, the higher up you go typically the stronger the winds get (to a point.) And typically when you go from East to West, you have a pretty good headwind or crosswind - and the stronger that wind is the more fuel it takes for you to get to your destination.

And on top of that, what happened to us was, we were coming in on an arrival to our airport, and they dropped us down from FL410 to 15,000 feet over 100 miles out from the airport. We were already starting to see it was going to be close up at 410, but when we got dropped that low we knew we were in trouble. We tried negotiating with Center and everyone we talked to about stayin as high as possible for as long as possible, but they had to have us down. Finally, as we arrived in the airport area, with our yellow caution lights going off, they tried putting us #6 for the runway behind a bunch of airline traffic. They told us to expect about a 25 mile each direction downwind and final leg, so we had to declare a we got landing priority over the rest of the traffic.

My whole point of this post is to just show you a typical scenario where you could have plenty of fuel for your trip, but circumstances can take over and leave you cutting it close!