Flying slow to save fuel?

[mamba20]

Question: Why are we talking about indicated airspeed while at FL300? Thats the mach region. Of course your indicated speed is going to be around 250. As far as flying slow to save fuel? As long as your ontime or early there is nothing wrong with it. You never know when you might need that extra gas and take a good close look at the difference in flying at MMO as opposed to flying and a more economy cruise speed. More often then not you will find that you burn WAY more gas to go fast and no make up much time at all.

 

[aewanabe]

Sorry PCL, but I'm gonna fly whatever speed I want on the busy airway (after advising/asking ATC, of course, since my speed and ETE are deviating from what's filed). If that's holding up the flow then center is perfectly capable of asking me to speed up, taking some delay vectors to get somebody else in front.

 

[PCL_128]

Sorry PCL, but I'm gonna fly whatever speed I want on the busy airway.

Fine, be a d0uchebag.

 

[aewanabe]

Fine, be a d0uchebag.

Yeah great job with the partial quote. Did you miss where I advised center of the change or are you just trying to be a jackass?

Seriously, when I was a CHQ captain I was often flying my jet at .63-.67 when we were 30 early, because that's what the book said the most efficient speed was- imagine that. Now what do you suppose would happen when Citrus or Southwest or anyone else came burning up my ass on the airway? Wait for it, wait for it..... Oh yeah, the center controller would speed me up or vector me off the airway depending on what he needed. Seems like it's my job to fly the aircraft efficiently, and his job to manage traffic. Works good lasts long time.

 

[Raskal]

Fine, be a d0uchebag.

What's with the hostility? Why do you give a f%ck what anyone else flies at? As for being held up, request vectors/alt change around, and if you don't get it than it probably wont help anyway.

FYI-.01 mach=6 mph (approx) so, newsflash, it wont make more than a couple of minutes difference for a shorter leg anyway. Relax.

BTW, if you're in such a hurry than take a bit of advice and get out of 121, cuz it's only getting slower.

 

[relief tube]

What's up with some of the regionals flying slow to save fuel these days? Do they NOT want to get to the destination asap? A CHQ was doing 250 over the ground at FL300 the other day on his way to IAD, and had his speed pulled back to "conserve fuel" wtf, is this a company directive?

Why do you think it's only regionals? Majors do it too.
That's why everyone is asking for higher.

Do you live in a cave? B/C it seems like this is a new thing for you.

Fuel prices are up 300%, and this world's ecosystem is going down the sh-i-t-ter.....if we slow up we help minimize the impact of both.

I religiously fly slow if we're showing early, and will do so for the rest of my life...why get in 10 minutes early for a 2 hour sit? And I'll be the first to offer to go faster if we're slowing someone up behind us, except if it's Gojets.

Maybee you should think of doing the same, instead of being busy not knowing about much.

 

[dickburns]

hey unstable aviator, what makes you think I was behind you? I wasn't. but your company was doing it again yesterday. rofl.

 

[dickburns]

hey BoilerUP, airlines have hedged their fuel THAT WELL, that they're paying $2.25/gal? That sounds very cheap. Impressive.

 

[BoilerUP]

hey BoilerUP, airlines have hedged their fuel THAT WELL, that they're paying $2.25/gal? That sounds very cheap. Impressive.

Airlines buy massive volumes, obviously getting them a discount.

For the 3rd quarter that ended Sept. 30th, US Airways (ticker LCC) paid an average of $2.22/gal of Jet-A, using 311.3M gallons of fuel. Fuel Hedges provided US Airways with $20M in savings.

For comparison's sake, Southwest (ticker LUV) paid an average of $1.69/gal for Jet-A over the same quarter, using 388M gallons of fuel. Hedges provided LUV with $188M in savings for the quarter, and without them fuel would have cost LUV $2.12/gal.

Basically, SWA paid $.53 per gallon less than US Airways for fuel for between July and September.

 

[Propsync]

I can't speak for every operator out there, but engine mx can affect slowing down. Power by the hour means go fast and save on engine mx cost, but burns more fuel. Obviously, the opposite is true. Since I have no idea of what mx costs are for engines on a per hour basis, I wonder what scenario is better, and by how much.