Fuel Saving

[ipilot]

hi! guys

just wanna know whats the fuel saving policy with your airline or company? as for my company they are very hot on extra fuel to be carried specially on long trips and use of APU on ground. any info will be helpful. thanks in advance.
keep flying!!

 

[mynameisjim]

I think it depends on who foots the fuel bill. In my experience, most regionals who don't pay for their fuel don't do much to save gas. Especially anything that may increase their costs (single engine taxi, for example).

 

[avbug]

My ears grow weary when I start hearing employers whine about fuel. They hired a professional who's going to use what's needed, when it's needed, period. It's the cost of doing business. If they want to micromanage my fuel use, let them climb in the cockpit and do it themselves.

 

[Rally]

Nice one AVbug.....
OR how about charge something above the greyhound ticket for that route.

 

[avbug]

It's expensive for everyone. I drive to see my kids every other weekend. They don't live near an airport, but the cost of gas for my car is more than many airline tickets. Each way.

I've had employes harp on fuel costs time and time again. Don't buy any more fuel than necessary. Tanker fuel here, go as light as you can there. Land, deplane passengers, but taxi to the other side of the airport for fuel...it's cheaper. Drives me nuts.

I'll take on the fuel I need. I don't take excess expensive fuel, but I also do believe in courtesy fuel. If an FBO spends the money and takes the effort to have a nice facility where my passengers go...I'm not going to drop them then taxi to the other side of the field to go buy fuel fromsomeone else. Nor am I going to take a huge load of expensive fuel when my next stop has it for fifty cents or even a buck less, where I can do so safely. Neither will I refrain from buying fuel and fly into weather and low conditions with bare minimum reserves just because there's cheaper fuel there. The employer would like to see that, because he or she dances at the bottom line. I don't; my only concern is safety of flight. After that, sure I'll do everything in my power as a professional to make the flight comfortable, economical, and efficient. But we do that anyway, as professionals...no need for the employer to whine about it. It's insulting.

 

[ipilot]

hey! avbug

your replies are always very informative and to the point but i think you don't like this subject at all. i know no one will sacrifice on safety trying to save company some bucks but i just wanted to know what all things a company would tell you to do for saving fuel. like i heard that Alitalia pays their pilots a fuel saving allowance depending on the monthly savings they do (dont know if its an Urban Legend). So i wanted to know things like these. SAFETY IS ALWAYS FIRST. Thanks again.....

 

[avbug]

What will companies do? I've known companies that wanted pilots to shut an engine down on descent to save fuel. Who wanted pilots to badger ATC constantly for direct, who compared fuel burns on every trip and called pilots on the carpet if theirs was different than others. Who barked about tenths of an hour difference on trips, and who seemed to feel that delays such as weather and ATC holdups were the fault of the pilot (couldn't you just have flown through it? Why didn't you cancel and go in VFR?) and so on. I knew one company VP who insisted that pilots go to minimum necessary power all the time...including takeoff. Don't use any more than absolutely necessary, don't burn any more fuel than absolutely necessary.

On the other hand I came back to the airport early one morning, after sitting at a hospital with a medical crew while they recovered a heart. The Chief Pilot had stayed behind with the airplane, as he was afraid of hospitals...he thought he'd get sick. The weather was clear, but bitter cold. When I climbed into the cockpit, I found a 600lb fuel balance problem, and discovered he'd been running the engines to keep warm. He'd bring one up, heat the cabin with bleeds, and shut it down again. It was a short trip so we had adequate fuel to go home, but he'd burned a lot. He was a shareholder, and could get away with that. He pushed other pilots hard enough that one of them routinely came home with the low fuel light on.

I've never been paid a fuel bonus, though I've saved hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years by judicious fuel management and useage. I've been threatened with my job, however, by owners who thought that somehow that might save them a few dollars, and who didn't seem to appreciate that I was already saving them more than my annual salary. Talk about biting the hand that feeds.