Fuel Management

Fuel Management

“From an accident prevention perspective, fuel mismanagement is one of the most frustrating problems. The accidents are easy to avoid. The hardpart is reaching the pilots who are most at risk, because they’re not the ones attending safety seminars or taking online courses. A new approach is needed to get pilots to stop and think about the issue. Airing some ‘dirty laundry’? Perhaps, but we think it’s more than justified by the lives, aircraft, and dollars we lose to this problem every year. 

ACCIDENTS do far more damage to GA’s reputation than educational efforts to rectify the situation.

It shows that, the pilot community,  is making a good faith effort to address the problem.”

—Bruce Landsberg, President, AOPA Foundation

Fuel Management Accidents

Fuel management accidents are among the most preventable types of GA mishaps, and yet pilots still manage to turn perfectly good airplanes into impromptu gliders at an alarming rate well over two per week in the US.

The primary way GA pilots manage fuel on board is to do arithmetic.



 You look at the length of your trip, the winds, read some performance charts, then bust out your calculator or whiz wheel  to figure out how long it will take you to get to your destination at what fuel burn. I might get anywhere from 10 to 18 miles per gallon on a flight. And if the headwind is stronger than I expected or I'm routed the long way, it might take more than that. The 30 minute required reserve  is really not enough. 

FAR Part 91-151