Fuel left onboard..

[DaveB]

Hi Guy's..

As you will all probably know, I spent last month flying cargo.. exclusively in the Merchantman, in an attempt to try and make a dent in what our competition were doing. One of the first things I had to do (and I flew all nine aircraft over the month) was to get each one with a useable amount of reserve fuel onboard and much of the possible profit these flights could have made was lost doing this.

Eventually, every Merchantman was left with +/- 2000kg onboard, most slightly over this amount. Needless to say, it angers me slightly to see one left at LHR with a little over 600kg remaining!!! What sort of possible hold and diversion is catered for in that I wonder :think:

OK.. a decent profit has been made on both the outbound and return flights for this particular aircraft but the next pilot is going to face an almost empty aircraft.. unless of course the pilot in question is going to take on the burden and get it back to 2000kg again! Bottom line is.. keep a reasonable amount of fuel in the aircraft and if fuel is expensive at one or both of the airports you're operating from, it is up to YOU to cover the cost.. NOT dump on the next pilot.

If I find other aircraft similarly left for what is no more than personal gain, I'll discuss with John the possibility rewarding such inconsideration with removal of TR's.

DaveB :tab:

[simondix]

Dave,

Hoping I am not guilty of this type of thing, certainly not the Merchantman as I am not TR'd for it. Not flying the Merchantman 2000kg or 600kg does not mean much, however, if perhaps we could leave a minimum percentage in the aircraft would that be any help. This could be a stipulation. I know extra rules are a pain but it might stop a bit of ill feeling.

[DaveB]

Hi SImon

No matey.. you are not the guilty party. A quick glance at the Merchantman fleet will show that each aircraft has close to 2000kg in it.. some a little over which should give a reasonable clue as to what's reasonable and what's not to the casual observer. The flight in question took 500kg onboard for the outbound and 2100kg for the return so this was a calculated act not an accident. I left it with 2160kg onboard and that, likewise, was calculated against a possible expensive return.

It's difficult to make hard and fast rules for this sort of thing and fleet managers have a large number of aircraft to look after. However.. what has been suggested in the past is that you try and leave an aircraft (if it's within safe limits) with what you found in it. :roll:

As a by the by.. our Vanguard at Brooklands.. a 'Museum Piece' has more in it's right tank (800kg) than has been left onboard PEK at LHR. With a similar amount in the LH wing (820kg).. the combined total is just about enough to give us around 12mins running time with the engines never leaving high ground idle!

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Chris Trott]

Not flying the Merchantman 2000kg or 600kg does not mean much, however, if perhaps we could leave a minimum percentage in the aircraft would that be any help.

You should never land with less than 1 hour of flying time left onboard the airplane. This gives you enough fuel for your 45 minute required reserve for divert and fuel to climb back to a cruise alititude after making an approach (since you usually don't divert unless you've made at least one try at the approach).

[Garry Russell]

Can that be made a rule?

Try to calculate a landing with an hours fuel...obviously it can't be hard and fast but any wild deviation could cause questions to be asked :think:

Perhaps also that if a pilot does this then perhaps he could still pay for the error to help credit the following pilot correctly.

Garry

[DaveB]

Hi Chris

Well.. the reality for us on FlyNET is that should we divert, we're dropped in the do-do but yes, I hear and concur with your comments. While this isn't always possible or necessary under our environment, there is absolutely no need to run an aircraft down this low (proportionally) just to make the flight a more profitable one. Unfortunately, a few pilots do it habitually :roll:

With 1753 flights done.. imagine how popular I'd be if I went around emptying everything I flew!!

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[DaveB]

Hi Garry..

Popped in there as I was submitting!

I suppose it is possible to go through every type we fly and stipulate a minimum for landing but we're against any additional rules if at all possible. We don't ask much really.. do we

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Garry Russell]

HI Dave

I was just thinking a general hours fuel on everything then you don't have to give each type an amount.

It might be difficult to remove TR on such as this if it is not written down what the rule is.

I don't mean strictly enforcable fist slamming rule......merely a line of reference for any action that might need to be taken.

Garry

[DaveB]

Hi Garry..

Both John and I have commented on this before mate so it's nothing new.. just annoying :@ I could reel off a number of pilots who've made 'similar' flights.. more often 'one-off's' and have taken no fuel onboard at all regardless if the aircraft has been previously active. Every now and again, you stumble over an aircraft where the pilot has obviously made a cock-up.. for whatever reason. It's been sat there for months.. the last pilot is elsewhere, many times over and the FOB exceeds what would be normally considered as the MLW. In these circumstances.. yeh, pull the fuel down to get it at least to MLW! This DOES happen.

It's difficult to know where to draw the line Garry. We don't want to over regulate but at the same time.. we don't want pilots taking an aircraft and not fuel it for a flight simply because he thinks it has 4x the fuel he considers necessary. It's something I'll be giving some thought to ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[stegs]

You'll have to make rules if you want real world conditions Dave
I'm not a pilot. I haven't a clue how real aircraft are fuelled. This is a game not real life.
All I know is how much I have to put in to get me from A to B in Flynet.
I've gathered this from all the posts on how various aircraft use fuel.
I come in on fumes sometimes because I haven't a clue how it would done in the real world.
I'm not trying to maximise earnings or anything.
I just don't know what would be left in the tanks at the end of a normal flight

Steve