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just confirming
Brian.Smith
Topic Author
Brian.Smith created the topic: just confirming
Gday bob
Is it correct the 45 min fixed reserve is calculated at holding rate because its not suppose to be used enroute, but only when you have arrived?
Cheers Brian
The 45 minute fixed reserve is never available for burning except in an emergency. So, on any normal flight you must land with at least the 45 minute fixed reserve in the tanks. Compare that to the variable reserve which is available for burning on a normal flight. You just can't *plan* to burn it. It is there as a fudge factor to cover eventualities such as weather delays, unexpected headwinds etc.
As for whether the 45 minute is calculated at holding rate, that is a matter for the fuel policy specified in the exam or by your operator in real life. It is fair enough to expect it to be at holding rate since if an emergency was preventing you from landing (e.g. the runway was blocked by an accident), it is reasonable to expect you would throttle back and hold while waiting for the situation to improve.
Bottom line: the fixed reserve of 45 minutes is never burned under normal circumstances and it is *usually* calculated at 45 minutes at holding rate.
Thanks Richard, thanks for that. Got another one for you mate. Just did the first BT online practice exam and got 92 so hopefulyly thats a good indication for the future but one of the ones i got wrong was a echo t/o chart. The surface was rated as "UNRATED". My thinking was, worst case its long wet grass so i went with that but the answers suggested just going straight as short dry? Surely you would use the worst case!
The term 'unrated' doesn't refer to whether the surface is long/short grass or dry/wet. Runways are sometimes rated according to their tyre pressure tolerance or pavement strength. i.e. the capacity of the runway, taxiway or standing area to cope with heavy aircraft. An unrated runway simply has never been tested for that.
There is no reason why an unrated runway could not have a perfectly good surface as far as take-off and landing performance is concerned. In the absence of any specific information relating to long wet or short dry grass, you would assume that an unrated runway has a good surface.
