Flight Planning and Monitoring
Flight Planning and Monitoring tests fuel policy, route and altitude selection, alternate planning and in-flight monitoring against the operational flight plan.
Fuel plan
- Taxi fuel, trip fuel, contingency fuel, alternate fuel, final reserve and extra fuel are separate items.
- Contingency fuel is normally a percentage of trip fuel, not of total fuel.
- Final reserve is held for the destination or alternate; it is not planned to be used.
- In flight, compare actual fuel burn and ground speed with the plan and revise the alternate/extra fuel decision early.
Worked example
Trip fuel 1,200 kg; contingency 5% = 60 kg; alternate 300 kg; final reserve 30 minutes at 800 kg/h = 400 kg; taxi 20 kg; extra 100 kg. Minimum planned fuel = 1,200+60+300+400+20+100 = 2,080 kg. If actual burn increases by 50 kg, the extra fuel is consumed first; the crew must reassess before the final reserve is compromised.
Traps
- Calculating contingency on total fuel instead of trip fuel.
- Omitting taxi fuel or alternate fuel.
- Confusing final reserve with alternate fuel.
- Ignoring temperature corrections to fuel density.
- Failing to update the plan when winds or routing change.