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Flight planning and fuel policy

The operational flight plan, alternates, fuel components and in-flight fuel management under ICAO, EASA and FAA rules

By Aerospace Garage Desk · Practitioner · 40 minutes · 24 narrated pages

What you will be able to do

  • ✓ Build an operational flight plan from route, flight level, wind, weather and NOTAM information, and compare routes by trip fuel.
  • ✓ Select take-off, en-route and destination alternates and apply the European planning minima and fuel ERA rules.
  • ✓ Calculate required fuel component by component under the EASA basic fuel scheme, and compare it with 14 CFR 121.639 and 121.645.
  • ✓ Evaluate cost index and tankering decisions, including mass limits, extra burn, CO2 and the EU anti-tankering rule.
  • ✓ Manage fuel in flight, apply the MINIMUM FUEL and MAYDAY FUEL declarations correctly, and outline the ETOPS critical fuel scenario.
  • ✓ Use fuel data, human-factors awareness and the ATSB Mildura findings to make earlier, safer fuel decisions.

Course content

Session 1 · The operational flight plan

1.1

  1. What the operational flight plan is for · free preview
  2. Routes and flight levels
  3. Weather and NOTAMs in the plan
  4. Worked example: choosing the route by trip fuel
Session 2 · Alternates and planning minima

1.2

  1. Why and when a destination alternate is needed
  2. Take-off and en-route alternates
  3. Planning minima for alternates
  4. Worked example: a fuel ERA and 3% contingency
Session 3 · The fuel components

1.3

  1. The building blocks of required fuel
  2. The European fuel schemes since 2022
  3. The United States rules: domestic and flag
  4. Worked example: a full fuel calculation for a sector
Session 4 · Cost index and tankering

1.4

  1. Cost index: trading fuel against time
  2. Tankering: the economics and the limits
  3. Tankering and the environment
  4. Worked example: a tankering decision
Session 5 · In-flight fuel management

1.5

  1. Fuel checks and in-flight replanning
  2. MINIMUM FUEL and MAYDAY FUEL
  3. The ETOPS critical fuel scenario in brief
  4. Worked example: a MINIMUM FUEL decision
Session 6 · Fuel safety: data, people and decisions

1.6

  1. Fuel data and safety monitoring
  2. Human factors in fuel decisions
  3. When the forecast is wrong
  4. From the investigation file: fog at Adelaide and Mildura, 2013

Who this course is for

Upskill courses are for professional development and are not approved by any aviation authority. Learner Terms

Course content © Aerospace Garage Limited. All rights reserved.